THE  WORLD  IN 
THE  CRUCIBLE 

GILBERT  PARKER 


4^' 


\/ 


THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 


)  Kavis  A-  Sanloril.  Niw  York 


ll^^^^^ i^^-'n^cn 


THE  WORLD  IN  THE 
CRUCIBLE 

AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  ORIGINS  & 
CONDUCT  OF  THE  GREAT  WAR 


By  gilbert  PARKER 


NEW  -YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 

1915 


Copyright,  1915 
By  DODD,  mead  AND  COMPANY 

All  rights  reserved 


TO 

J.  E.  C  BODLEY 

WHOSE 

"FRANCE" 

HAS  SO  POWERFULLY  SHOWN  US  WHAT  GERMANY 

WOULD  MUTILATE  OR  DESTROY 


NOTE 

In  the  analysis  of  the  negotiations  preceding  the 
war,  and  in  the  various  researches  necessary  to  the 
presentation  of  historical  and  current  facts,  I  have 
been  very  greatly  indebted  to  Mr.  Richard  Dawson, 
whose  devotion  and  faithful  care  have  made  my  task, 
with  its  many  attendant  difficulties,  easier. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

THE   GERMAN    EMPIRE   FROM    WITHIN v      .       .        1 

CHAPTER  H 

THE   KAISER  AND  HIS  POLICY 33 

CHAPTER  HI 

MIGHT   IS   RIGHT   AND  WAR   IS   THE   GERMAN   GOOD 5^ 

CHAPTER  IV 

THE  PLACE  IN  THE  SUN ^7 

CHAPTER  V 

GERMAN   COLONIAL   POLICY,    THE   UNITED   STATES,    AND  THE    MONROE 

DOCTRINE ^°5 

CHAPTER  VI 

THE    OPPORTUNITY 126 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE   CLOUD  IN  THE   EAST 14^ 

CHAPTER  VIII 

BRITISH   POLICY,   EUROPEAN   AND   COLONIAL 159 

CHAPTER  IX 

WHAT  DID   ENGLAND  DO  FOR  PEACE? 174 

CHAPTER' X 

"casus  belli" 189 

CHAPTER  XI 

WAR 207 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XII 

ENGLAND    MOVES 229 

CHAPTER  XIII 

"  BRAVE    BELGIUM  " 244 

CHAPTER  XIV 

THE   SEDUCTION   OF  TURKEY 278 

CHAPTER  XV 

SOUTH   EASTERN  EUROPE   AND  THE  BALKAN   QUESTION         ....    29I 

CHAPTER  XVI 

CIVILIZATION    AND   THIS   WAR 314 

CHAPTER  XVII 

"  FRIGHTFULNESS  " 34^ 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

LIGHTS  AND  LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR 3^0 

APPENDICES 409 

INDEX 415 


THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 


ENGLAND 

"  I  see  her  not  dispirited,  not  weak,  but  well  remembering  that 
she  has  seen  dark  days  before;  indeed,  with  a  kind  of  instinct  that 
she  sees  a  little  better  m  a  cloudy  day,  and  that  in  storm  of  battle 
and  calamity  she  has  a  secret  vigour  and  a  pulse  like  cannon.  I 
see  her  in  her  old  age,  not  decrepit,  but  young,  and  still  daring  to 
believe  in  her  power  of  endurance  and  expansion.  Seeing  this,  I 
say,  All  hail !  Mother  of  nations.  Mother  of  heroes,  with  strength 
still  equal  to  the  time;  still  wise  to  entertain  and  swift  to  execute 
the  policy  which  the  mind  and  heart  of  mankind  require  at  the 
present  hour,  and  thus  only  hospitable  to  the  foreigner,  and  truly 
a  home  to  the  thoughtful  and  generous,  who  are  born  in  the  soil. 
So  be  it!     So  let  it  be!  " 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  1856. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    GERMAN    EMPIRE    FROM   WITHIN 

The  crime  of  Serajev^o  was  in  no  real  sense  the  cause 
of  the  great  war  now  devastating  Europe.  It  fired 
a  mine,  however,  which  was  charged  with  the  mate- 
rial of  generations  and  had  had  the  very  anxious 
attention  of  two  decades  of  diplomacy.  To  discover 
the  origins  of  this  tragic  conflict  we  must  travel  far 
behind  the  events  of  June  and  the  diplomatic  cor- 
respondence of  July  of  1 9 14;  and  that  correspond- 
ence cannot  be  understood  unless  read  in  the  light  of 
German  "  World  Politics,"  or  fVeltpolitik. 

That  Germany  has  cherished  designs  of  aggres- 
sion is  admitted  by  her  own  writers,  and  by  no  one 
more  emphatically  than  by  the  notorious  General  von 
Bernhardi,  who  has  been  the  busy  missioner  of  Pan- 
Germanism  and  Prussian  militarism.  In  his  book, 
Germany  and  the  Next  IFar,  this  candid  champion 
declares  that  the  German  people  were  condemned  to 
political  paralysis  at  the  time  when  the  great  Euro- 
pean States  built  themselves  up  and  expanded  into 
World  Powers;  but  that  they  did  not  enter  the  circle 
of  the  Powers,  whose  decision  carried  weight  in 
politics,  until  late,  when  the  partition  of  the  globe 
was  long  concluded;  when  after  centuries  of  natural 
development  other  nations  had  attained  political 
union,  colonial  possessions,  naval  power,  and  inter- 
national trade.  Ha\ing  thus  stated  the  actual  and 
numbing  fact,  he  stoutly  says: 

"  What  we  now  wish  to  attain  must  be  fought  for,  and 
won,  against  a  superior  force  of  hostile  interests  and  Powers." 

I 


2  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

The  attenuated  version  of  the  doctrine  so  boldly 
enunciated  by  this  enterprising  militarist  and  his  class 
—  that  Germany  must  go  to  war  because  she  must 
expand  and  cannot,  because  she  is  being  choked;  be- 
cause she  needs  Colonies  to  receive  the  overflow  of 
her  population;  because  Great  Britain,  the  robber- 
nation,  obstructs  her  expansion,  may  for  the  moment 
be  dismissed.  A  nation  like  Germany,  which  has 
given  several  millions  of  its  people  to  the  United 
States  alone,  cannot  complain  of  having  no  oversea 
refuge  for  her  people,  especially  when  German 
Americans  are  expected  to  remain  German  in  all 
essentials,  and  to  be  organized  to  support  German 
Imperial  Interests.  Of  course  no  nation  —  least  of 
all  one  great,  proud  and  powerful  —  can  view  un- 
moved the  migration  of  Its  most  virile  and  enter- 
prising sons  to  foreign  lands,  to  become  the  wealth- 
producers  of  rival  countries;  but  of  late  years  Ger- 
man emigration  has  been  almost  negligible.  Grow- 
ing Industrial  prosperity  and  an  admirable  agrarian 
system,  supported  by  an  equally  admirable  system 
of  co-operation,  enabled  Prince  Biilow  In  a  recent 
year  to  record  with  complacency  that  the  average 
emigration  from  Germany  has  shrunk  to  no  more 
than  22,500  persons  every  year.  Contrasted  with 
the  figures  of  British  emigration  these  numbers  are 
Infinitesimal.  Certainly  they  are  Insufficient  to  be 
an  Important  factor  in  precipitating  a  world-wide 
war,  even  If  war  on  such  a  basis  were  otherwise  than 
criminal  and  barbaric.  To  make  war  simply  to  ac- 
quire territory  has  every  precedent  in  Prussian  his- 
tory —  no  student  can  forget  Schleswig-Holstein, 
Alsace-Lorraine,  Poland  and  Silesia  —  but  it  Is  re- 
garded with  disapproval  by  all  other  civilized  na- 
tions. 

Though  It  Is  Impossible  to  account  for  the  present 


GERMANY'S  IMPERIAL  FAILURES  3 

aggression  of  Germany  on  the  ground  of  commer- 
cial and  economic  necessity;  on  the  plea  that  there 
was  no  room  to  breathe  behind  the  Rhine  and  the 
Baltic;  that  new  dominions  oversea  wxre  indispen- 
sable to  her;  it  is  possible  to  find  one  of  the  true 
causes  in  far-reaching  political  necessity  and  purpose 
which  could  not  rely  on  natural  and  peaceful  devel- 
opment, accompanied  by  increased  constitutional 
freedom,  responsibility,  and  opportunity  for  the 
masses.  Boundless  as  may  have  been  the  ambitions 
of  the  now  chastened  Kaiser,  to  charge  him  with  a 
merely  aimless  lust  for  World-Empire  and  the  purely 
adventurous  spirit  of  a  chevalier-at-arms  would  be 
foohsh.  He  cannot  be  credited  with  the  higher 
qualities  of  Alexander  or  of  Napoleon,  whose  vision 
had  genius  behind  it  in  the  days  when  the  spirit  of 
conquest  for  conquest's  sake  was  still  alive  in  a  partly- 
civilized  world.  It  is  only  possible  to  acquit  him 
partially  of  their  unwholesome  attributes  after  study- 
ing the  conditions  of  Germany"  as  revealed  in  her 
contemporary  history. 

There  is  perhaps  nothing  in  all  the  archives  of 
time  more  surprising  than  the  failure  of  Germany  to 
succeed  as  an  Imperial  Power.  More  than  once  she 
had  Empire  —  great  unorganized  Empire  —  within 
her  grasp,  and  each  time  she  let  it  go.  She  shattered 
the  Western  Empire  of  Rome,  but  she  failed  to  es- 
tablish herself  on  the  ruins.  She  could  seize,  but 
she  could  not  hold;  the  German  people  have  never 
had  the  genius  either  for  colonization  or  for  Im- 
perial policy. 

Charlemagne's  Empire  covered  the  whole  of  cen- 
tral Europe.^     The  Elbe,  the  Garonne,  and  Venice 

1  By  this  it  is  not  meant  that  Charlemap;ne  was  a  German.  The 
Prankish  Empire,  however,  incliuled  (Germany.  The  Ottonid  sov- 
ereigns, beginning  with  CJtto  the  Great,  asserted  their  claim  to  the 


4  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

were  harbours  for  his  ships;  his  banner  flew  at 
Ushant  and  Semlin;  he  was  crowned  at  Aix  and  in 
St.  Peter's  Church  at  Rome.  Even  after  his  death, 
the  German  Empire  was  a  splendid  fabric.  FVance, 
indeed,  was  lost;  but  to  balance  that  the  Ottonides 
and  Hohenstaufen  extended  their  territories  to  the 
East,  beyond  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  even  across  the 
Oder  and  across  Pomerania  towards  Prussia  —  Bo- 
russia  as  it  was  then  named.  The  Hohenstaufen 
ruled  from  the  Rhone,  the  Meuse  and  the  Scheldt 
to  the  Slavonic  regions  on  the  east,  from  the  North 
Sea  and  the  Baltic  as  far  as  Naples;  Denmark,  Bo- 
hemia, and  Poland  were  their  tributaries.  When 
Frederick,  the  last  of  that  great  House,  was  excom- 
municated and  deposed  by  Innocent  IX,  with  derisive 
retort  he  could  crown  himself  with  seven  crowns  — 
the  royal  crown  of  Germany,  the  Imperial  diadem 
of  Rome,  the  iron  circlet  of  Lombardy,  the  crowns 
of  Sicily,  Burgundy,  Sardinia,  and  Jerusalem. 

So  in  the  space  of  a  few  centuries  the  great  Em- 
pires of  Charlemagne,  of  Otho,  and  of  Barbarossa, 
rose  and  fell,  springing  up  under  the  genius  of  some 
illustrious  man,  and  then  flickering  out  like  those 
stars  which,  brightening  for  a  moment  into  splendour, 
die  down  again  to  the  lowest  magnitude,  consumed 
by  their  own  internal  fires.  In  the  story  of  the  rise 
and  fall  of  these  dynasties  there  is  a  singular  monot- 
ony. Their  very  military  achievements,  brilliant  as 
they  were  and  brimming  with  the  romance  of  adven- 
ture, become  wearisome  through  repetition.  Al- 
ways there  are  the  expeditions  to  the  south,  with  the 

Western  Roman  Empire  as  deriving  from  Charles  the  Great.  Al- 
though, therefore,  the  Empire  of  Charles  was  not  German,  it  was 
the  progenitor  of  the  later  German  Empire.  It  may  be  noted,  too, 
that  Charlemagne's  capital  was  on  the  east  of  the  Rhine  and  that 
his  crown  was  preserved  in  Vienna. 


PROFITLESS  GLORIES  5 

reconquest  of  Italy  as  the  first  step  in  the  career  of 
every  Emperor;  always  the  story  of  the  conqueror 
recalled  from  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  to 
deal  with  some  truculent  vassal  at  home.  Warlike 
enterprises  under  the  standard  of  the  Cross,  profit- 
less conquests  on  the  Po  and  Adige,  valiant  deeds, 
endless  slaughter,  and  nothing  to  show  for  it  all  in 
the  end.  If  the  defeat  of  the  forces  of  Genghis 
Khan  and  the  stemming  of  the  tide  of  Mongol  in- 
vasion are  expected,  it  is  hard  to  point  to  a  single 
victory  gained  by  the  German  States  which  had  any 
permanent  influence  on  their  history.  But  we  search 
in  vain  amid  all  this  warlike  glory  of  the  far  past 
for  any  signs  of  a  national  awakening,  such  as  may 
be  found  in  England  under  the  early  Plantagenets, 
the  contemporaries  of  the  Hohcnstaufen.  We  may 
find  in  Richard  I  a  replica  of  the  policy  of  the  Hohcn- 
staufen princes;  but  under  none  of  them  can  be  dis- 
cerned such  movements  as  distinguished  the  reigns 
of  Henry  II,  John,  Henry  III,  and  Henry  V  of  Eng- 
land. 

Yet  there  never  was  a  people  to  all  outward  seem- 
ing more  destined  and  fitted  for  Empire  than  the 
Germans.  They  were  homogeneous  in  blood,  pro- 
lific, virile,  gifted  with  bodily  and  mental  powers 
above  the  ordinary,  industrious,  thrifty,  thorough 
and  patriotic.  Their  geographical  position  gave 
them  outlets  to  every  sea,  while  great  rivers  gave 
the  people  of  the  interior  easy  access  to  the  ocean. 
Iheir  lands  were  well  adapted  for  defence,  while 
their  central  position  afforded  them  easy  means  of 
attack.  In  spite  of  all  that  they  failed.  Their 
record  is  one  of  complete  failure  imperially,  but  of 
amazing  power  to  establish  themselves  domestically, 
to  transcend  the  most  discouraging  and  trying  con- 
ditions in  the  single  state.     The  proved  inheritor  of 


6  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

these  attributes  and  capacities  Is  Prussia,  the  bravest, 
strongest,  most  merciless  and  most  uncivilized  State 
of  the  German  Empire  and  of  Europe  In  all  that  is 
truly  essential  to  civilization.  Bounded  on  every 
hand  by  conflicting  powers,  the  German  countries 
endured  and  prevailed  as  separate  States  always. 
There  were  thirty-eight  of  them  in  1815,  with  Prus- 
sia, the  slowly  emerging  rival  of  Austria,  at  the 
head.  Other  nations  have  been  beaten  down  and 
blotted  out,  but  not  Germany.  Her  indomitable 
spirit  has  always  risen  superior  to  defeat,  however 
ruinous.  Germans  have  held  the  German  lands 
through  the  centuries,  and  again  and  again  have 
spread  their  rule  through  almost  every  corner  of 
Europe.  They  rose  to  the  opportunity  for  acquir- 
ing and  developing  Empire  when  the  fall  of  Rome 
cleared  the  way;  but  they  squandered  their  oppor- 
tunities, and  proved  themselves  unequal  to  the  task. 
Their  epitaph  Is  that  of  Galba :  Capax  imperii  nisi 
imperasset.  They  could  conquer,  but  they  could  not 
govern.  They  could  maintain  their  freedom,  but 
they  could  not  create  an  empire,  though  they  had 
rare  virtues  of  nationality,  of  a  "  particularism " 
never  more  strikingly  shown  than  to-day.  Their 
present  organization  is  the  triumph  of  a  policy  of 
forty  years,  wherein  the  separate  States  of  the  Ger- 
many of  1 87 1  have  been  steadily  educated  in  the 
cult  of  war  by  the  Prussian  military  element;  by  uni- 
versities which  do  the  bidding  of  the  Government; 
by  a  Press  which  Is  a  State  Press;  by  politicians  and 
statesmen  who  have  persistently  and  systematically 
told  the  German  people  .hat  to  them  belong  the 
governance  of  the  world,  and  that  by  their  sword 
shall  the  world  be  redeemed  from  the  other  ar- 
rogant Powers,  such  as  England,  that  now  control 
it. 


GERMAN  UNITY  A  MYTH  7 

At  first  thought  it  is  perhaps  not  surprising  that, 
in  the  past,  the  German  people  failed  to  bring  per- 
manently into  their  Empire  races  so  divergent  as 
those  of  Italy,  Bohemia,  and  Burgundy,  though 
Great  Britain  succeeded,  and  Rome,  Persia,  and 
France  had  succeeded  before  her.  Out  of  the 
Heptarchy  grew  England,  an  agglomeration  of  half 
a  dozen  races.  Great  Britain  sprang  from  union 
with  the  Gaelic  people  of  the  North  and  the  Celtic 
people  of  the  West.  France  built  up  a  solid  State 
out  of  Provinces  widely  differing  in  blood,  in  lan- 
guage, and  in  ideals:  from  Normans  and  Bretons, 
from  Gascons  and  Burgundians  and  Provencals,  even 
from  Germans  of  Elsass  and  Lotharingen;  Italy 
evolved  union  from  a  dozen  States  which  through 
centuries  had  been  mortal  foes.  Germany  alone  re- 
mains to-day  a  congeries  of  States,  which,  with  all 
allowance  for  modern  development,  in  essentials  is 
scarcely  removed  from  the  tribal  condition  of  fifteen 
hundred  years  ago,  in  spite  of  the  loud  celebration  of 
German  unity  which  has  assailed  the  ears  of  the 
world  for  the  last  generation. 

Prince  Billow,  in  his  book  hnperial  Germany,  ad- 
mits this  with  admirable  candour.  These  are  words 
of  moment: 

"  No  nation  has  found  it  so  difficult  as  the  German  to 
attain  solid  and  permanent  political  institutions,  although  it 
was  the  first,  after  the  break-up  of  the  antique  world  and  the 
troublous  times  of  the  migration  of  nations,  to  acquire  that 
peace  in  national  existence  founded  on  might  which  is  the 
preh'minary  condition  for  the  growth  of  real  political  life. 
Though,  thanks  to  Germany's  military  prowess,  she  found 
it  easy  enough  to  overcome  foreign  obstruction  and  inter- 
ference in  her  national  life,  at  all  times  the  German  people 
found  it  very  hard  to  overcome  even  small  obstacles  in  their 
own  political  development." 


8  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Indeed,  as  Prince  Biilow  further  says,  the  story  of 
Imperial  Germany  is  one  in  which  national  unity  has 
been  the  exception,  and  Separatism  in  various  forms, 
adapted  to  the  circumstances  of  the  times,  the  rule, 
while  what  Is  true  of  the  past  is  also  true  of  the 
present.  No  nation  has  a  history  fuller  of  great 
achievements  in  most  spheres  of  man's  activity;  cer- 
tainly none  will  deny  that  German  military  and  in- 
tellectual exploits  are  remarkable;  but  the  history  of 
no  other  nation  tells  of  such  utter  disproportion  be- 
tween political  progress  on  the  one  hand  and  mili- 
tary success  on  the  other.  During  long  epochs  of 
political  Impotence,  owing  to  which  Germany  was 
crowded  out  of  the  ranks  of  the  Great  Powers,  there 
are  few  defeats  of  German  arms  by  foreign  forces 
to  record.  If  the  time  of  Napoleon  I  be  excepted. 
Her  prolonged  national  misfortunes  and  failures  to 
seize  opportunities  of  colonial  development  were  not 
due  to  foreigners,  or  foreign  aggression  or  oppres- 
sion, but  to  her  own  fault.^ 

It  Is  Impossible  to  exaggerate  the  Importance  of 
this  judgment  of  his  countrymen,  delivered  by  the 
most  notable  of  German  statesmen  since  Bismarck. 
Nor  is  it  an  isolated  opinion.  It  was  not  quite  orig- 
inal of  Prince  Biilow  to  inform  us  that  political  talent 
has  been  denied  to  the  German  nation,  and  that  the 
Germans  lack  that  political  sense  which  connotes 
a  sense  of  the  general  good,  for  Goethe,  a  hundred 
years  before,  found  "  The  Germans  very  capable 
Individually,  and  wretchedly  Inefficient  In  the  bulk  "; 
while  General  von  Bernhardi,  the  ever  candid,  super- 
ficial, and  effusive,  insists  that  there  Is  no  people  so 
little  qualified  as  the  German  to  direct  his  own  des- 
tiny In  the  field  of  diplomacy  and  politics,  Internal 

2  Von  Bulow's  Imperial  Germany,  pp.   127-136. 


POLITICAL  INCAPACITY  9 

and  external.  This  political  incapacity  of  thinking 
for  the  common  good;  of  acting  through  constitu- 
tional forms  and  legislation  devised  and  projected 
under  constitutional  forms,  for  many  units  In  one 
whole,  which  has  been  the  persistent  attribute  of  the 
German  race  through  the  centuries,  has  taken  the 
form  of  what  Is  variously  called  by  their  own  spokes- 
men Separatism,  or  "  the  centrifugal  forces  of  the 
German  nation." 

In  every  department  of  influence  and  activity, 
wherein  political  judgment  is  necessary  to  accommo- 
date varying  factors  In  the  national  organism,  the 
German  people  are  unfortunate  In  their  acts  and 
lacking  in  vision  and  understanding.  With  a  some- 
what fatal  gift  of  logic  and  speculative  thought,  and 
a  rare  faculty  for  methodical  research,  they  have  lit- 
tle instinct  for  discovery  and  small  Initiative.  Lack- 
ing In  true  discernment,  their  values  are  distorted 
by  an  egotism  which  leads  them  to  believe  that  mo- 
tives cannot  be  seen;  that  the  most  elementary  per- 
ception is  denied  those  whom  they  oppose,  or  whom 
they  would  control,  influence,  use,  or  govern.  Po- 
litical capacity  Is  a  combination  of  many  attributes, 
and  tact.  In  the  real  and  deeper  sense.  Is  as  much  an 
Integral  part  of  statesmanship  as  capacity.  In  the 
politics  of  a  nation  it  is  not  enough  to  accept  a  prin- 
ciple, or  find  an  object  In  Itself  desirable;  the  ap- 
plication of  the  principle  must  depend  upon  and  be 
harmonious  with  racial  character  and  genius,  and  be 
adjusted  to  particular  national  circumstances.  The 
desirable  end  can  only  be  reached  by  finding  those 
methods  and  that  logic  which  coincide  with  the  tem- 
per and  character  of  the  people.  In  a  country 
where  the  peremptory  attitude  of  mind  is  character- 
istic of  the  governed  and  the  governing,  and  where 
autocracy   gives   the   governing  class  the   initiative, 


,/^^       lo  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

political  development  must  meet  with  many  checks 
both  in  internal  and  external  policy.  Obedience  to 
the  dictates  of  the  ruling  class  may  secure  acceptance 
of  policy;  but  voluntary  will  and  mental  assent  and 
reciprocity  are  necessary  to  secure  the  effective  work- 
ing of  any  constitution  and  any  law,  in  a  community 
of  free  men;  especially  in  a  community  affected  by 
contiguous  democratic  examples  and  influence. 

Even  with  the  astute  Bismarck  at  the  helm,  the 
Junker's  incapacity  to  be  politically  wise,  to  carry  out 
policy  along  the  lines  of  negotiable  resistance,  had 
occasional  demonstration,  in  one  case  imperilling  the 
Confederation  of  1871  at  its  very  start.  Aiming 
at  the  subjection  and  elimination,  as  a  political  factor, 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  establishment  in  Germany,  the 
Iron  Chancellor  passed  laws  designed  to  undermine 
Catholicism  as  a  practical  force  in  the  affairs  of  gov- 
ernment. But  when  the  Kulturkampf  and  the  Falk 
Laws  raised  a  storm,  and  were  met  by  a  powerful  and 
hostile  demonstration,  Bismarck  beat  a  retreat,  un- 
dignified and  precipitate,  leaving  him  to  the  end  of 
his  career  vis-a-vis  of  a  clericalism  in  the  State  which 
daunted  even  his  bold  spirit. 

If  tactfulness  may  be  applied  to  the  business  of 
war,  the  German  nation  has  shown  especial  inapti- 
tude for  it  in  the  present  conflict.  Its  Press  Cam- 
paign in  the  United  States  has  been  marked  by  amaz- 
ing gaucherie  and  childishness;  its  Ambassador  has 
been  as  awkward  in  pursuing  his  purpose  as  his  ene- 
mies could  well  wish.  Whenever  by  accident  or 
through  circumstances  some  moment's  advantage  has 
been  gained,  as  in  the  case  of  the  difficulty  between 
England  and  the  United  States  over  contraband,  the 
purchase  of  ships  by  the  American  Government,  or 
the  sailings  of  the  Dacia,  the  German  Government 
has  immediately  neutrahzed  it  by  acts  against  inter- 


TEUTONIC  TACTLESSNESS  it 

national  law,  ferocious  In  their  nature  and  futile  in 
effect;  such  as  the  bombardment  of  the  unfortitied 
English  coast  towns  by  warships,  and  of  hamlets  and 
villages  by  airships.  The  acts  in  themselves  pro- 
duce nothing  save  an  incomprehensible  joy  on  the 
part  of  the  German  Press  and  denunciation  from  the 
Press  and  people  of  all  neutral  countries;  while  naval 
and  military  experts  have  been  unable  to  see  the  ma- 
terial advantage  to  Germany  of  these  demonstrations 
of  savage  force  against  non-combatants  and  unforti- 
fied places.  The  nation  they  are  meant  to  cow  or 
anger  has  only  deepened  its  conviction  that  it  is  fight- 
ing an  unsportsmanlike  country,  which  breaks  all 
rules,  even  those  to  which  it  has  given  its  hand  and 
seal;  defies  all  principles,  even  those  which  are  in- 
herent in  that  culture  to  which  it  ostentatiously  pro- 
fesses devotion;  and  repudiates  the  morals  of  that 
civilization  which  it  aspires  to  control. 

In  other  words,  Germany's  political  acumen,  its 
power  to  adjust  theories  to  nation-life  and  world-life 
are  antipodean  to  its  military  capacity  and  power,  as 
it  has  always  been.  The  leading  evening  paper  of 
New  York,  repeating  an  almost  universal  editorial 
sentiment,  said  of  the  airship  raid  of  the  English 
coast: 

"  It  cannot  be  justified,  it  has  no  warrant  in  international 
law,  and  is  against  both  the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  the  Hague 
Convention.  No  military  necessity  can  be  pleaded.  It  is 
a  bit  of  pure  savagery,  a  mere  exhibition  of  ferocity,  wholly 
futile." 

More  characteristic  still  of  the  blind  insistence 
with  which  Germany  flings  all  prudence,  wisdom  and 
reason  to  the  winds  when  she  wills  things  to  be  and 
her  will  is  crossed  by  her  foes,  was  her  declaration 
made  to  the  world  that  she  would  meet  the  legitimate 


12  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

acts  of  war  of  Great  Britain  in  preventing  food 
reaching  German  ports  by  torpedoing  all  merchant- 
men, belligerent  or  neutral,  with  cargoes  and  passen- 
gers In  a  declared  war-zone,  which  embraced  the 
British  Isles.  No  neutral  flag  would  save  such  mer- 
chantmen, and  lives  and  ships  would  be  destroyed  If 
they  ventured  within  this  prohibited  sphere.  That 
did  not  matter  to  the  government  concerning  whose 
acts  a  great  New  York  paper  asks,  "  Do  nations  go 
crazy?  "  and  adds,  that  Germany  could  not  make  this 
so-called  blockade  effective,  and  that  if  she  could  not 
do  so  it  was  piracy  and  nothing  else.  She  would  run 
amok  out  of  rage  and  resentment  at  being  checked  on 
her  conquering  course. 

Ever  since  the  war  began  Germany  has  spent  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  pounds  trying  to  Influence 
American  opinion  in  her  favour  and  against  the  Al- 
lies. With  the  question  of  the  Dacia  and  the  trans- 
fer of  ships;  of  the  JVilhelmina  and  conditional  con- 
traband, troubling  and  even  inflaming  the  American 
spirit;  with  every  reason  for  silence,  yet  she  threw 
away  all  her  advantage  in  rage  at  the  Idea  of  a  British 
liner  flying  the  American  flag,  challenged  civilization, 
and  defied  American  opinion;  with  what  results  the 
world  knows.  It  Is  the  madness  of  the  bull  In  the 
ring  goaded  by  the  bandlUeros,  and  charging  the 
bandilleros  while  the  matador,  who  is  the  real  enemy, 
waits  till  madness  and  wounds  have  made  all  ready 
for  the  end.  Germany,  instead  of  keeping  her  eye 
steadily  on  the  matador,  has  gone  plunging  down  the 
arena,  forgetting  or  repudiating  the  fact  that  there  is 
a  political  side  to  war,  and  that  the  rules  of  the  game 
must  be  observed,  even  from  the  lowest  standpoint  of 
material  advantage.  In  the  end  the  penalty  for  the 
broken  rule  is  exacted  one  way  or  another.  Tilly 
and  his  Bavarians  paid  for  the  sack  of  Magdeburg. 


THE  SLAVE  OF  THEORY  13 

Yet  "  back  to  Tilly  "  has  been  the  cry  of  the  modern 
German  militarist;  hence  the  policy  of  "  frightful- 
ness  "  and  "  hacking  the  way  through." 

Thus  always  the  slave  of  its  theory,  military,  polit- 
ical or  national,  the  helpless,  because  voluntary,  vic- 
tim of  merciless  logic,  Germany  deliberately  invites 
the  scorn  and  anger  of  the  world  because  the  act 
which  produces  the  scorn  and  anger  fits  in  with  "  the 
scheme."  The  greater  end  is  forgotten  in  the  imme- 
diate and  fanatically  logical  purpose.  Once  the 
logic  is  accepted  and  declared,  the  end  Is  forced  with- 
out assuagement  or  modification. 

This  is  all  in  odious  harmony  with  the  affront  of- 
fered to  a  civilized  nation.  In  the  proposal  made  by 
Germany  in  the  pre-war  negotiations  that  England 
should  repudiate  her  Ally,  France,  and  hold  her  back 
if  necessary  by  force,  while  Russia  was  being  de- 
feated. All  Germany  wanted,  If  she  fought  France, 
was  to  strip  that  country  of  Its  colonies  and  oversea 
dominions,  so  reducing  her  to  the  position  of  a  sec- 
ond-rate Power  —  that  was  all!  No  nation  with 
perception  and  perspicacity  could  have  made  such 
proposals,  whatever  the  evil  in  Its  heart.  She  would 
have  foreseen  the  rejection  of  them  by  any  honour- 
able country.  Unless  she  was  sure  of  the  dishonour- 
able character  of  the  nation  she  was  trying  to  seduce 
she  would  not  attempt  so  dangerous  a  task.  There 
are  some  things  which  even  a  peace-loving  nation  like 
Great  Britain  could  not  endure;  but  German  policy 
could  not,  or  would  not,  see  that.  The  Kruger  tele- 
gram in  1896  was  a  political  blunder  of  similar  na- 
ture, for  unless  the  Kaiser  was  prepared  for  war 
humiliation  could  only  be  the  result  of  that  challenge. 
Political  Incapacity  denied  him  the  necessary  insight 
to  prevent  that  adventure  into  other  people's  busi- 
ness.    Then,   however,  was  laid  the  plot  to  make 


14         THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

South  Africa  German;  then  began  the  conspiracy  and 
the  dirty  intrigues,  the  spying  and  the  preparations 
of  which  General  Botha  has  spoken  since  this  war  be- 
gan; and  the  details  of  which  will  be  given  to  the 
world  in  due  course. 

Almost  as  egregious  was  the  Kaiser's  blunder  from 
the  standpoint  of  public  opinion  in  his  own  country 
and  in  Great  Britain  by  writing  the  Tweedmouth  let- 
ter, in  which  he  attempted  to  modify  the  naval  policy 
of  this  country  privately  through  the  First  Lord  of 
the  Admiralty.  It  had  a  fitting  pendant  in  the  Daily 
Telegraph  interview  In  which  he  acknowledged  that 
the  prevailing  sentiment  of  his  country  was  not 
friendly  to  England;  and  In  which  he  declared  that  he 
had  worked  out  a  plan  of  campaign  with  his  General 
Staff  for  the  conduct  of  the  South  African  war  and 
made  a  gift  of  it  to  this  country.  The  storm  the 
Kaiser  raised  In  Germany,  the  suspicion  his  over- 
zealous  sympathy  aroused  in  England,  were  the  natu- 
ral fruits  of  a  perverse  political  sense  which  to 
achieve  Its  end  took  no  account  of  probabilities,  pos- 
sibilities, or  human  nature.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  in 
many  of  the  Kaiser's  indiscretions  he  has  offended  his 
own  people  even  more  than  foreigners,  and  In  each 
case  has  given  fresh  evidence  of  that  political  inca- 
pacity characteristic  of  his  House  and  his  people.  By 
the  Swinemunde  Despatch  of  1903  to  the  Prince  Re- 
gent of  Bavaria,  In  which  he  rebuked  the  Bavarian 
Diet  by  offering  to  pay  their  rejected  annual  grant  of 
five  thousand  pounds  for  art  purposes,  he  roused  the 
sharp  resentment  of  Bavarians.  The  telegram  to 
Count  GoluchowskI,  the  Austrian  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  approving  him  as  a  "  brilliant  sec- 
ond "  In  the  "  tourney  "  at  Algeclras,  was  wilfully 
provocative  to  Russia  as  it  was  humiliating  to  the  his- 
toric Empire  of  Austria  to  which  Prussia,  before 


THE  BISMARCKIAN  ERA  15 

1866,  had  played  a  "wily  and  unreliable  second." 
The  Kaiser's  tactlessness  in  1908  in  expressing  his 
wish  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  would 
send  Mr.  Griscom  as  Ambassador  to  Berlin  after 
Dr.  David  Jayne  Hill  had  been  already  appointed, 
was  as  awkward  for  the  Chancelleries  of  Berlin  and 
Washington  as  It  was  bad-mannered  and  intrusive. 
The  incident,  not  portentous  in  itself,  was  but  another 
proof  of  the  sightless  political  intelligence  of  the  Ger- 
man over-lord,  who  has  again  and  again  rebuffed,  re- 
buked and  offended  his  own  Parliament,  which  he  and 
his  House  have  ever  considered  a  hindrance  rather 
than  a  help  to  good  government. 

Travel  back  through  the  pages  of  German  history 
as  far  as  you  will,  and  the  same  spirit  of  political 
tactlessness  is  to  be  found  and  the  same  practice  at 
work;  in  less  degree,  however,  within  the  Bismarck- 
ian  epoch  —  that  is,  from  1858  until  the  great 
Chancellor  made  way  for  the  neutral-spirited  Ca- 
privi.  Bismarck's  vast  ambition  made  his  policy  cor- 
rupt and  ruthless;  but  consummate  adroitness  and 
knowledge  of  human  nature  made  his  diplomacy  pos- 
sible and  successful.  He  was  sage  enough,  in  the 
demon-sense,  to  secure  Austria's  assistance  in  the  tak- 
ing of  Schleswig-Holstein  from  Denmark  and  then  to 
rob  her  of  Holstein;  unscrupulous  and  astute  enough, 
by  the  battle  of  Sadowa,  to  eject  Austria,  which  had 
been  for  so  long  the  leader  and  master  of  the  Ger- 
manic States,  out  of  the  orbit  of  Germanic  power  for 
ever.  Realizing  that  Austria,  after  1866,  would  try 
for  her  revenge  in  as  near  a  day  as  possible,  he  de- 
cided to  check  the  hope  completely  and  for  all  time. 
The  time  was  now  ripe  to  carry  out  the  big  policy  of 
German  national  unity  —  the  combination  of  a  scries 
of  German  States  —  which  could  only  be  accom- 
plished by  an  external  war.    The  unpreparedness,  dis- 


i6  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

organization  and  corruption  of  France  offered  him 
his  opportunity.  By  the  Siege  of  Paris  and  the 
Treaty  of  Frankfurt  Germanic  federation  was  se-' 
cured,  and  Austria's  revenge  was  indefinitely  post- 
poned. In  1848,  Fredericlc  William  IV  had  rejected 
the  offer  of  the  Imperial  Crown  to  Prussia,  since 
Prussia  was  not  then  strong  enough  to  be  master  of 
her  sister  States,  but  only  a  partner  with  them;  but 
1870  saw  Prussia  a  leader  strong  enough  to  dominate 
the  projected  union.  That  was  a  brilliant  period  in 
German  history,  and,  so  far  as  war-policy  is  con- 
cerned, it  was  supreme.  It  had  all  the  unscrupulous 
vigour  and  duplicity  of  Frederick  the  Great,  the 
atheist,  who  became  the  champion  of  the  Protestant 
nations,  the  deserter  from  the  Pragmatic  Sanction 
who  robbed  Maria  Theresa  of  Silesia.  It  was  the 
clearly  stated  policy  embodied  in  Bismarck's  phrase, 
"  Not  by  speeches,  nor  by  the  decision  of  a  majority, 
but  by  blood  and  iron."  Not  by  the  decision  of  a 
majority !  Here  spoke  the  true  Prussian  in  the  spirit 
of  the  Middle  Ages  in  a  country  where  then  and  now 
and  always  man  has  been  the  child  of  the  State,  where 
representative  government  has  been  a  name,  not  a 
reality. 

The  Emperor  William  I,  whom  the  Kaiser  is  for- 
ever celebrating  in  his  speeches,  early  in  his  career  as 
King  of  Prussia  wished  to  abdicate  rather  than  be 
governed  by  a  Parliamentary  majority.  Bismarck, 
however,  met  the  difficulty  by  governing  for  some 
years  without  a  budget  and  freed  from  the  control  of 
Parliament.  In  1867,  in  the  Prussian  Chamber,  Bis- 
marck bluntly  said: 

"  Since  the  last  speaker  has  expressed  a  certain  degree  of 
surprise  that  I  should  have  spent  perhaps  the  best  years  of 
my  public  life  in  combating  the  Parliamentary  right  of  dis- 


BLOOD  AND  IRON  17 

cussing  the  Budget,  I  will  just  remind  him  that  it  may  not 
be  quite  certain  that  the  army  which  gained  last  j-ear's  battles 
would  have  possessed  the  organization  by  which  it  gained 
them  if,  in  the  autumn  of  the  year  1862,  no  one  had  been 
found  ready  to  undertake  the  conduct  of  affairs  according  to 
His  Majesty's  orders  and  putting  aside  the  resolution  passed 
by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  on  the  23rd  of  September  of 
that  year." 

For  five  years  Bismarck  defied  the  Chamber's  reso- 
lutions, and  after  William  II  came  to  the  throne, 
when  "  His  Majesty's  orders  "  were  rejected  by  the 
Chamber  in  1893,  the  Reichstag  refusing  to  agree  to 
increased  expenditure  for  defence,  and  again  during 
the  Morocco  difficulty,  and  on  the  same  basis,  the 
Chamber  was  promptly  dissolved.  Then  the  cry  of 
nationalism  and  expansion  was  raised,  and  the  mili- 
tary element  once  again  triumphed  in  a  country  which 
finds  in  war  its  inspiration  and  its  means  to  material 
advancement. 

Of  Bismarck's  policy  thus  much  has  remained,  the 
Blood  and  Iron,  hardened  into  a  ghastly  creed  of 
conquest:  not  European  conquest  alone,  but  conquest 
beyond  the  seas  —  a  policy  to  which  Bismarck  was  al- 
ways opposed,  declaring  that  the  Germans  had  no 
gift  for  colonization  and  that  long  years  should  be 
spent  in  consolidating  European  possessions.  One 
of  those  political  mistakes  which  have  always  pre- 
vented Germany  from  retaining  empire  is  to  be  found 
in  the  annexation  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  to  which  it 
is  well  understood  Bismarck  was  opposed,  only  giving 
assent  to  it  under  pressure  from  Von  Moltke.  It 
was  a  piece  of  political  ineptitude  and  incapacity 
which  time  has  made  more  naked. 

There  are  historians  who  declare  that  the  seeds  of 
representative  government  in  the  world  were  first 


i8  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

sown  in  ancient  Germany.^  However  that  may  be, 
Prussia,  whose  King  is  now  the  German  Emperor, 
has  never  yet  given  democratic  government  to  her 
people.  Democratic  government  does  not  exist  in 
the  States  of  Germany  (there  is  more  semblance  of  it 
in  Bavaria  than  elsewhere)  ;  though  there  has  been 
extraordinary  social  legislation  which  might  well  be 
the  product  of  a  socialistic  State,  its  object  being  to 
reconcile  the  masses  —  and  it  has  been  done  effect- 
ively so  far  as  this  war  is  concerned  —  to  a  more 
rigid  autocracy  than  exists  in  Russia  or  in  any  other 

2  In  an  interesting  article  published  in  the  Outlook  of  New  York, 
in  November,  19 14,  Professor  Robert  McElray,  of  Princeton  Uni- 
versity, advances  the  theory  and  supports  it  by  references  of  much 
point:  "The  idea  of  representative  government,"  he  says,  "so  far 
as  its  history  can  be  traced,  first  appeared  in  the  forests  of  Ger- 
many, and  has  long  been  known  among  political  theorists  as  the 
Teutonic  Idea.  Wherever  we  find  Teutons  in  the  earliest  days  of 
European  history,  we  find  not  only  the  primary  assembly  which  had 
been  familiar  to  the  people  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  but  also 
rough  attempts  at  representative  assemblies."  He  explains  how 
gradually  the  Teutonic  Idea  was  defeated  on  the  continent  of  Eu- 
rope, how  the  gospel  of  force  overcame  the  gospel  of  representative 
government,  how  Germany  ceased  to  be  a  nation,  and  the  coun- 
tries which  imbibed  her  idea  presently  lost  it  under  the  harsh 
spirit  which  outspread  over  Europe  from  Caesar's  rule.  But  he  de- 
clares that  in  the  British  Isles  the  Teutonic  Idea  took  root  and 
lived,  becoming  a  nation's  Charter  at  Runnymede,  being  somewhat 
battered  in  the  period  which  begot  the  American  Revolution,  and 
springing  to  life  again  in  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832.  After  sketching 
the  development  of  the  Teutonic  Idea  in  England,  he  uses  these 
striking  phrases:  "There  are  no  Runnymede  barons,  no  Simon 
de  Montforts,  no  Oliver  Cromwells,  no  Abraham  Lincolns,  in  the 
history  of  Prussia.  Slowly,  but  with  a  grim  and  terrible  certainty, 
the  iron  hand  of  the  Prussian  War  Lord  has  brought  the  German 
nation  to  exactly  the  position  to  which  King  George  III  attempted 
to  bring  England  and  the  American  colonies.  In  Germany  the 
Teutonic  Idea  is  dead.  A  mixed  race,  more  Slavonic  than  Teu- 
tonic, the  Prussian,  has  deprived  the  German  people  of  their  birth- 
right. There,  as  Professor  Cramb  strikingly  phrases  it,  '  Corsica 
.  .  .  has  conquered  Galilee.'  The  ideals  of  Prussia  remain  to-day 
just  what  they  were  in  the  days  of  the  Great  Elector  —  ideals  of 
absolute  monarchy  —  and  the  German  Empire  has  accepted  them." 


PRUSSIAN  ABSOLUTISM  19 

State  in  the  world  to-day.  Grudgingly  and  churl- 
ishly Frederick  William  IV  promised  a  constitution 
to  Prussia  in  1847,  together  with  the  pledge  that  the 
so-called  Parliament  should  have  some  control  over 
expenditure ;  but  when  it  came  to  the  pinch  he  with- 
held the  pledged  powers  and  said: 

"  I  will  never  let  a  sheet  of  written  paper  come  between 
our  Lord  God  in  Heaven  and  our  country,  to  rule  us  by  its 
paragraphs  and  to  put  them  in  the  place  of  ancient  loyalty." 

Under  pressure  he  gave  the  Constitution  after  the 
Revolution,  but  he  left  a  letter  enjoining  his  succes- 
sors to  abolish  it,  lest  it  should  in  the  end  impair  the 
power  of  the  Crown.  It  is  stated,  whether  or  not 
v\'ith  truth,  that  Kaiser  William  II  destroyed  that  let- 
ter; in  any  case  he  has  faithfully  interpreted  the  spirit 
of  it. 

The  Revolution  of  1848,  followed  by  a  period  of 
grave  internal  disorder,  in  which  the  army  was  the 
only  thing  remaining  powerfully  effective  in  the 
State  —  the  one  great  implement  of  Prussian  power 
and  advancement,  had  as  its  sequel  the  massive  and 
eloquent  period  of  William  I  and  Bismarck.  Under 
them  the  ground  was  recaptured  which  was  lost  be- 
tween that  period  from  the  death  of  Frederick  the 
Great  until  the  death  of  the  insane  Frederick  William 
IV  in  1 86 1.  Unwittingly,  Napoleon  did  one  great 
service  to  Prussia  when  he  arranged  the  confedera- 
tion of  the  Rhine  States,  thereby  laying  the  lines  of, 
and  pointing  the  way  to,  future  German  confedera- 
tion. Unintentionally  also  another  service  was 
rendered  Prussia  by  Napoleon,  when  her  eastern 
Polish  possessions  were  taken  from  her,  and  her 
possessions  were  limited  to  Brandenburg,  Silesia, 
and  the  two  Provinces,  with  a  total  population  of  5,- 
000,000.      For  the  time  this  indeed  lessened  Prus- 


20         THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

sia's  problems  and  difficulties,  and  forced  her  to  look 
westward  for  the  increase  of  empire;  not  in  vain. 
The  Congress  of  Vienna,  in  place  of  the  old  Polish 
provinces  which  Saxony  had  secured  in  1807,  en- 
dowed her  with  the  Rhine  provinces,  Posen  and 
Pomerania,  together  with  parts  of  Saxony  and  central 
Germany;  and  thereafter  followed,  under  the  in- 
capable leadership  of  Austria,  a  loose  Federation 
without  a  real  constitution,  closely  allied  to  the  old 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine. 

There  is  nothing  denunciatory  said  to-day  by  the 
critics  of  Germany  which  equals  the  strictures  on  her 
character  as  a  State,  not  as  a  people,  by  Count 
d'Angeberg,  who,  with  bitterness,  in  his  publication, 
Le  Congres  de  Vienne  et  les  Traites  de  1815,  says : 

"  For  the  Prussian  Monarchy  any  pretext  is  good.  It  is 
altogether  devoid  of  scruples.  Mere  convenience  is  its  concep- 
tion of  right.  .  .  .  The  terrible  discomfiture  that  has  befallen 
its  ambition  has  taught  it  nothing.  Even  at  this  moment  its 
agents  and  partisans  are  agitating  Germany,  depicting  France 
as  being  again  ready  to  invade  it,  pretending  that  Prussia 
alone  is  capable  of  defending  it,  and  asking  it  to  hand  itself 
over  to  her  for  its  very  preservation.  She  would  have  liked 
to  have  Belgium.  She  wants  everything  between  the  present 
frontiers  of  France,  the  Meuse  and  the  Rhine.  She  wants 
Luxemburg.  All  is  up  if  Mayence  is  not  given  her.  Secur- 
ity is  impossible  for  her  if  she  does  not  possess  Saxony.  .  .  . 
It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  set  a  limit  to  her  ambition,  first, 
by  restraining,  as  far  as  possible,  her  expansion  in  Germany; 
secondly,  by  restraining  her  influence  by  means  of  a  federal 
constitution.  Her  expansion  will  be  restrained  by  preserva- 
tion of  all  the  small  States,  and  by  the  aggrandizement  of 
those  that  are  her  nearer  rivals." 

Prussia  had  in  turn  deserted  Napoleon  for  the 
Allies  and  the  Allies  for  Napoleon,  always  for  a 
price;  the  great  European  prostitute  whose  virtue 


THE  POLICY  OF  GRAB  21 

was  for  sale.  Jena  was  the  consequence.  Nothing 
has  changed  in  Prussia  or  in  Germany  since  d'Ange- 
berg's  day,  so  far  as  character  is  concerned.  Official 
Germany  which,  under  Frederick  the  Great,  made 
wars  ruthlessly  without  warning  and  with  only  one 
purpose,  the  declared  purpose  of  conquest,  makes 
war  ruthlessly  and  for  conquest  still,  with  none  of 
the  warrant  for  aggression  of  that  less  developed 
period  in  which  Frederick  lived;  and  in  an  age  when 
the  world  desires  peace  and  not  war,  approves  of 
colonization  but  not  of  territorial  robbery. 

To  enlarge  her  Empire  in  her  ancient  way,  and  to 
resist  the  growing  seeds  of  internal  disruption,  Ger- 
many set  forth  upon  a  ghastly  foray  for  gain  and 
territory  in  the  year  19 14,  entrenched  behind  the 
plans  of  forty  years.  Fortunately  for  the  world,  a 
handful  of  people  in  Belgium  and  a  handful  of  sol- 
diers on  the  Marne  stopped  her  before  France  was 
once  again  crushed  by  the  heel  of  the  Uhlan  con- 
queror; before  she  and  her  accomplice  Austria  beat 
back  the  Russians;  before  the  Balkans  were  over- 
borne and  their  fate  sealed  to  Austria  in  part  and  to 
Germany  in  part,  while  for  Germany  her  highway  to 
empire  in  Asia  Minor  and  Persia  was  made  open  and 
secure. 

In  one  of  his  great  sane  moments,  having  accom- 
plished what  he  wished  by  dubious  methods,  Bismarck 
said : 

"  Even  victorious  wars  can  only  be  justified  when  they  are 
forced  upon  a  nation,  for  we  cannot  foresee  the  cards  held  by 
Providence  so  nearly  as  to  anticipate  the  historical  develop- 
ment by  personal  calculation." 

Like  Napoleon,  Bismarck  always  knew  well  what 
he  ought  to  do  and  what  nations  ought  to  do,  and 
he  was  careful  enough  to  break  his  own  rules  only 


22         THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

when  he  was  certain  of  the  result.  His  policy  was 
marked  by  stern  caution.  Knowing  the  internal 
wealcness  of  the  German  character  and  the  natural  in- 
capacity of  his  fellow-countrymen  for  political  devel- 
opment, he  realized  that  only  by  emphasizing  the 
spirit  of  nationality,  while  providing  the  fruits  of  a 
spurious  liberalism  to  keep  the  masses  quiet,  would 
Prussian  policy  preserve  the  German  states  and  king- 
doms united  in  an  organized  Imperial  system.  Such 
facts  as  these  must  be  remembered  when  trying  to  un- 
derstand why  a  nation  like  Germany  should  be  so  In- 
flamed Into  war-policy  and  war-passion. 

Through  lack  of  political  ability,  through  want  of 
creative  faculty,  the  German  imperial  organization 
constantly  tends  towards  disintegration.  The  one 
cure  for  this  "  internal  disorder  "  which  the  German 
people  have  ever  yet  been  able  to  discover  Is  external 
adventure.  "  War,"  says  Treltschke,  "  is  the  only 
remedy  for  ailing  nations."  They  have,  however, 
never  been  able  to  find  any  counterbalance  to  their 
diplomatic  incapacity,  so  lamentably  shown  during 
the  present  war,  their  only  definite  triumph  having 
been  the  seduction  of  Turkey,  with  its  obvious  perils 
to  the  seducer. 

Bernhardi  hints  at  this  truth  when  he  points  out 
that  Germany  has  no  half-way  house  between  prog- 
ress and  retrogression.  Her  first  need  is  ever  to 
strengthen  and  consolidate  the  Institutions  best  calcu- 
lated to  counteract  and  concentrate  the  centrifugal 
forces  working  in  the  body  politic.  This,  of  course, 
is  the  first  duty  of  every  statesman;  but  the  German 
soldier-philosopher  does  not  attempt  to  achieve  It,  as 
others  have  done,  on  lines  of  Internal  development 
and  reform  and  social  evolution.  It  has  to  be  ac- 
complished by  merging  all  party  feeling,  all  distract- 
ing and  conflicting  elements,  in  a  common  system  of 


WAR  THE  FORCING-BED  OF  UNITY       23 

defence  by  land  and  sea ;  and  by  creating  a  strong  Em- 
pire controlled  by  powerful  national  feeling  and 
policy.  But  even  this  is  not  enough.  The  spirit  of 
German  Separatism  is  too  strong  to  be  neutralized  by 
purely  defensive  measures.  The  German  people 
have  always  been  incapable  of  great  acts  for  the  com- 
mon interest  except  under  the  irresistible  pressure  of 
external  conditions,  as  in  18 13;  or  under  the  leader- 
ship of  powerful  personalities,  who  can  inflame  the 
national  spirit,  arouse  the  enthusiasm  of  the  masses, 
and  vitalize  nationality.  In  other  words,  it  is  ad- 
mitted by  the  most  prominent  of  German  statesmen 
and  teachers  that  German  unity  is  a  feeble  plant 
which  has  to  be  forced  in  the  hotbed  of  war. 

To  find  the  doctrine  of  foreign  aggression  as  the 
antidote  to  political  incapacity  set  forth  with  fullest 
vigour  and  decision  we  must  search  the  writings  of 
Prince  Biilow.  It  may  seem  paradoxical  that  the 
carefully-trained  and  subtle  statesman,  rather  than 
the  rough  soldier,  should  be  the  more  outspoken;  yet 
it  is  really  not  so  strange  as  it  seems.  Bernhardi  is  the 
soldier,  loving  war  for  its  own  sake  and  in  its  most 
ruthless  form,  and  endeavouring  to  ennoble  it  by 
ethical  and  philosophic  sanctions.  Prince  Biilow  is 
the  statesman,  not  enamoured  of  war  in  itself,  but 
convinced  of  its  inevitable  necessity  if  Germany  is  to 
survive  as  a  single  nation.  Accordingly,  in  his  work, 
Imperial  Germany,  when  dealing  with  the  political 
regeneration  of  his  people,  he  frankly  abandons  all 
pretence  that  it  has  come  from  within.  Pie  does  not 
claim  to  be  the  discoverer  of  the  path  to  the  recon- 
ciliation of  the  hopes  of  the  German  people  and  the 
interests  of  the  German  governments.  That  high 
distinction  he  concedes  to  Prince  Bismarck. 

It  was  Bismarck's  good  fortune  to  have  at  hand  a 
strategist  like  Von  Moltke  and  an  organizer  like  Von 


24i         THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Roon.  But  it  was  his  own  intuitive  genius  which 
made  him  see  in  these  men  the  instruments  of  federal 
union.  In  the  Sixties,  Bismarck  reahzed  that  the 
will-power  of  the  German  nation  would  not  be 
strengthened,  or  its  natural  passion  roused,  by  fric- 
tion between  the  government  and  the  people,  but  by 
the  clash  of  German  pride  and  German  honour 
against  the  position  and  power  of  foreign  nations. 
So  long  as  the  unification  so  desired  was  a  question 
of  home  politics  it  was  powerless  to  give  birth  to  a 
compelling  national  movement  which  would  sweep 
States  and  princes  and  their  people  along  the  tide  of 
a  conquering  enthusiasm.  By  making  it  clear,  how- 
ever, that  the  issue  was  essentially  one  of  European 
politics,  Bismarck  gave  the  princes  the  opportunity  of 
heading  the  national  movement,  when  the  time  for 
developing  the  policy  was  ripe. 

Prince  Bismarck  saw  that  the  unification  of  Ger- 
many would  not  be  attained  without  opposition  in  Eu- 
rope. Other  nations  might  watch  the  movement 
without  apprehension,  so  long  as  it  was  merely  an  as- 
piration; they  could  not  view  it  unmoved  when  it  en- 
tered on  the  stage  of  realization;  but  in  that  very  op- 
position and  the  struggle  with  it  he  saw  the  certainty 
of  success.     In  the  words  of  Prince  Biilow: 

"  The  opposition  In  Germany  itself  could  hardly  be  over- 
come except  by  such  a  struggle  .  .  .  with  incomparable 
audacity  and  constructive  statesmanship  in  consummating  the 
work  of  uniting  Germany,  he  left  out  of  play  the  political 
capabilities  of  the  Germans,  in  which  they  have  never  excelled, 
while  he  called  into  action  their  fighting  powers,  which 
have  always  been  their  strongest  point." 

Illuminated  by  this  exposition  of  the  exigencies  of 
the  German  situation,  the  Bismarckian  policy  of  the 
Sixties  shines  out  with  remarkable  clearness  —  the 


WEAKNESS  OF  THE  NEW  EMPIRE         25 

ruthless  attack  on  Denmark  by  Austria  and  Prussia ; 
the  quarrel  of  the  bandit  States  over  the  division  of 
the  plunder;  the  manipulation  of  the  Ems  despatch, 
in  which  Bismarck  altered  the  words  to  make  it  ap- 
pear that  the  Emperor  William  refused  to  receive 
the  French  Ambassador.  Truth  is,  the  natural  polit- 
ical impotence  of  the  German  race  was  galvanized 
into  a  semblance  of  real  and  immense  capacity  and 
life  by  the  batteries  of  Sadowa  and  Sedan. 

Thus  was  Germany  given  a  third  lease  of  Empire; 
of  which  not  half  a  century  has  yet  run.  For  a  third 
of  that  period  it  looked  as  though  the  task  so  often 
undertaken  and  as  often  abandoned  had  been  con- 
summated at  last.  Exalted  by  the  "  enthusiasm," 
which,  as  Prince  Biilow  tells  us,  was  Bismarck's  great- 
est creation,  the  nation  set  itself  to  vast  schemes  of 
social  and  economic  reform.  In  the  glamour  of  com- 
mercial and  industrial  triumphs,  as  wonderful  as  any 
the  w^orld  has  seen,  national  unity  seemed  solidly 
achieved;  yet  already  there  were  forces  at  work  to 
impel  the  rulers  of  Germany  towards  a  departure 
from  Bismarck's  policy.  Enthusiasm  is  an  ephem- 
eral stimulant,  and  it  has  proved  powerless  against 
the  ineradicable  Separatism  of  German  national  life. 
Even  though  it  did  not  show  itself  in  any  overt  dis- 
content in  the  Germanic  States,  it  made  itself  felt  in 
the  blind  bitterness  of  political  parties,  and  notably 
in  the  growth  of  Social  Democracy.  The  Ottonid 
and  Hohcnstaufen  Empires  had  fallen,  not  as  the  re- 
sult of  conquest,  but  by  the  intrigues  of  aggrieved 
foreign  States  and  by  German  Separatism.  By  the 
seizure  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  the  Hohenzollern 
dynasty  sowed  the  seeds  of  similar  influences,  not  dl- 
irct,  as  in  the  Middle  Ages,  but  still  as  injurious  to 
'  icrman  consolidation.  The  Statue  of  Strassbiirg  in 
Turis  was  draped  in  mourning,  never  to  be  removed 


26  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

until  the  revanche  had  been  achieved.  The  existence 
of  enemies  connoted  a  necessity  for  armaments;  the 
demand  for  armaments  aroused  bitter  debates;  the 
German  Government  had  to  play  party  against  party ; 
all  of  which  rekindled  the  Separatist  parochialism 
which  Prince  Biilow  deplores  with  the  eloquence  of 
bitter  experience. 

It  is  impossible  to  read  the  ex-Chancellor's  account 
of  the  growth  and  significance  of  the  Social  Demo- 
cratic movement  in  Germany  without  the  conviction 
that  German  unity  was  still  based  on  insecure  founda- 
tions; and  that  the  foundations  could  not  be  made 
safe  without  a  further  advance  towards  the  constitu- 
tional absorption  by  Prussia  of  the  subordinate  States 
of  South  Germany.  The  position  which  the  German 
Government  faced  during  the  last  twenty  years  was 
one  of  astonishing  complexity.  The  attitude  of 
Southern  Germany  towards  Social  Democracy  has 
differed  largely  from  that  of  Prussia.  The  peculiar 
character  of  Prussia,  less  free  constitutionally  than 
any  other  German  state,  yet  the  backbone  of  German 
political  life,  has  made  the  solution  of  the  Social 
Democratic  problem  particularly  difficult  for  Ger- 
many. The  practical  modus  vivendi  with  the  Social 
Democrats,  attempted  here  and  there  in  Southern 
Germany,  does  not  seem  possible  in  Prussia. 

This  is  Prince  Biilow's  view  and  his  exposition  of 
the  thesis  demands  the  most  careful  attention.  He 
finds  German  Social  Democracy  to  be  antinational, 
and  incomparably  more  hostile  to  the  State  than  the 
Socialism  of  France  and  Italy,  which  has  sprung  from 
great  patriotic  movements,  such  as  the  Revolution 
and  the  Risorgimento,  both  inspired  by  an  intensely 
national  spirit.  In  his  view  Social  Democracy  is  the 
antithesis  of  the  Prussian  State : 


THE  STRUGGLE  WITH  SOCIALISM        27 

"  The  Social  Democrats  hate  the  Kingdom  of  the  Eagle 
...  as  being  a  State  of  orderly  organization,  the  heart  and 
core  of  the  German  Empire  .  .  .  whose  kings  united  Ger- 
many, with  which  the  future  of  the  Empire  stands  or  falls." 

Prussia  is  still,  in  greater  degree  than  the  other 
members  of  the  Empire,  a  State  of  soldiers  and  of- 
ficials, and  by  her  strong  control  has  always  evoked 
a  particularly  vigorous  counter-movement.  As  a  re- 
sult, whenever  the  control  of  the  State  has  been  re- 
laxed in  Prussia,  the  breakdown  of  her  State  ma- 
chinery has  been  more  complete  and  hopeless  than  in 
any  other  country.  If,  therefore,  the  Prussian  Gov- 
ernment had  wished  to  come  to  terms  with  Social 
Democracy,  as  other  German  States  have  done  in 
greater  or  less  degree,  its  officials  and  even  the  Army 
itself  would  have  regarded  it  as  "  a  shameful  sur- 
render to  the  enemy,  the  result  would  be  more  fatal 
in  Prussia  than  the  weakness  towards  the  March 
revolution  was  ";  and  it  is  very  questionable  whether 
another  Bismarck  could  be  found  to  restore  the 
authority  of  the  Crown.  To  have  yielded  to  the 
Social  Democrats  would  have  shattered  that  confi- 
dence of  Prussian  officials  and  soldiers  in  the  Crown 
which  is  essential  to  devoted  loyalty,  and  the  only  re- 
sult would  have  been  an  enormous  increase  in  the 
strength  of  Social  Democracy.  These  are  Prince 
Bijlow's  arguments. 

So  far  as  Prussia  is  concerned,  then,  the  policy  is 
simple.  It  is  that  of  rigid  suppression.  But  here 
arises  a  complication,  which  must  be  described  in 
Prince  Bulovv's  own  words: 

"The  peculiarities  of  Prussian  conditions  must,  of  course, 
react  upon  the  Empire.  .  .  .  The  Social  Democrats  will 
hardly  be  willing  to  come  to  an  arrangement  in  the  Empire 
so  long  as  they  are  opposed  in  Prussia.     On  the  other  hand 


28  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Imperial  Government  to  make 
an  agreement  would  have  the  same  confusing  and  disin- 
tegrating effect  on  Prussia  as  a  similar  attempt  in  that  State 
itself.  If  the  Empire  is  governed  without  reference  to  Prus- 
sia, ill-will  towards  the  Empire  will  grow  in  that  country. 
If  Prussia  is  governed  without  reference  to  the  Empire,  then 
there  is  the  danger  that  distrust  and  dislike  of  the  leading 
State  will  gain  ground  in  non-Prussian  Germany."  * 

Here  we  have  a  plain  confession  of  forces  making 
for  disintegration  as  formidable  as  any  that  threat- 
ened and  wrecked  the  old  German  Empires;  influ- 
ences as  disquieting  as  those  which  produced  the 
Revolution  of  1848.  If  the  political  demands  of  So- 
cial Democracy  were  refused,  German  Separatism 
would  remain  active;  if  they  were  conceded,  political 
power  would  be  given  to  a  people  unprepared  for  the 
use  of  it.  In  either  case  the  Empire  would  be  threat- 
ened with  disruption.  There  was,  however,  another 
release  from  the  dilemma,  at  which  Prince  Biilow 
scarcely,  or  very  obscurely,  hints,  but  which  finds 
bolder  expression  in  the  historian,  Treitschke,  who 
has  moulded  the  political  thought  and  aspirations  of 
the  New  Empire.  He  sees  the  only  hope  of  salva- 
tion in  — 

"  A  single  State,  a  monarchical  Germany  under  the  dynasty 
of  the  HohenzoUerns,  expulsion  of  the  princely  houses,  annex- 
ation to  Prussia."  ^ 

At  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  all 
seemed  fair  in  Germany,  to  the  eye  of  the  ordinary 
observer  who  noted  the  vast  strides  that  the  country 
had  made  commercially  and  Industrially,  who  saw 
how  her  capacity  for  organization  was  so  great.     Yet 

■*  Von  Bijlow's  Imperial   Germany,  p.  232. 

5  From  article  in  the  Historical  Revienu  for  October,  1897,  by  Dr. 
J.  W.  Headlara. 


GERMAN  HISTORY  REPEATS  ITSELF      29 

within  were  "  broils  festering  to  rebellion,  old  laws 
rotting  away  with  rust  in  antique  sheaths,"  new  forces 
threatening  the  consolidation  so  brilliantly  won. 

Let  us  review  the  foregoing  pages  briefly.  Here 
Is  a  people,  with  a  history  extending  over  nearly  two 
thousand  years,  endowed  with  all  the  qualities  which 
go  to  the  making  of  great  Empires,  save  one,  the 
spirit  of  Imperial  unity  and  the  political  capacity  to 
make  it  successful.  From  time  to  time  they  were  led 
conquering  by  great  men  —  Hermann,  Charlemagne, 
the  Ottonid  Princes,  Frederick  Barbarossa  —  imbued 
with  the  Imperial  instinct,  gifted  with  creative  genius, 
and  with  the  divine  power  of  awaking  the  national 
spirit.  These  greatly  dared  and  greatly  succeeded, 
but  the  prizes  they  won,  the  edifice  they  builded,  were 
but  transient  glories  lost  in  the  benumbing  and  paraly- 
sing slough  of  Separatism.  Only  a  natural  strength 
and  valour  enabled  the  race  to  survive;  to 
make  a  last  effort  to  rebuild,  that  which  had  been 
thrown  down.  Another  ruler  appeared  after  long 
centuries,  himself  not  great,  but  happy  in  his  choice  of 
great  servants.  They  together  —  William  I,  Bis- 
marck, Moltke,  and  the  rest  —  conceived  the  idea  of 
a  new  Empire  and  created  it  by  the  old  method  of 
militarism  and  war.  This  Empire  became  greater 
than  any  of  its  predecessors,  more  wealthy,  more 
powerful,  to  all  seeming  infinitely  more  harmonious; 
but  even  in  its  majestic  structure  cracks  began  to  ap- 
pear. Once  again  in  the  long  history  of  Germany, 
peace  threatened  to  undermine  the  fabric  which  blood 
and  iron  had  cemented. 

This  time,  however,  as  never  before,  the  rulers 
and  political  thinkers  were  quick  to  take  alarm. 
History  has  lessons  for  the  twentieth  century  which  it 
did  not  have  for  the  fourteenth.  It  has  become  a 
science,  a  philosophy;  and  the  historian  philosophers, 


30  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

the  military  scientists,  and  the  diplomatic  statesmen, 
were  not  to  be  caught  napping  as  were  their  forebears. 
Was  disunion  again  beginning  to  manifest  itself? 
Then  the  forces  which  had  called  unity  into  existence 
for  a  term  must  be  brought  into  action  again.  The 
political  impotence  of  the  Germanic  race  must  again 
be  offset  by  potential  forces,  not  political,  as  in  the 
past.  War  for  conquest  would  satisfy  —  or  pacify 
—  the  discontented  and  restless  elements,  as  it  did  in 
the  days  of  the  Crusaders  in  England;  as  it  did  in  the 
days  when  Henry  V  went  on  his  mission  of  conquest 
to  France.  Kenneth  H,  Vickers,  in  writing  of  Eng- 
land in  the  later  Middle  Ages,*^  says  that  while  many 
Englishmen  condemned  Henry's  proposed  expedition 
to  France,  the  main  argument  which  Influenced  the 
monarch  to  invade  France,  apart  from  his  personal 
ambition,  was  the  knowledge  that  there  was  disaffec- 
tion in  his  own  country: 

"  Knowing  that  sedition  lurked  In  secret  corners  of  men's 
hearts,  he  determined  '  to  busy  restless  minds  in  foreign 
quarrels.'  He  believed,  with  many  other  statesmen  before 
and  since,  that  a  war  would  pull  the  nation  together." 

That  was  in  a  day  when  war  had  sanctions  which 
It  does  not  now  possess.  Germany,  in  19 14,  believed 
still  that  it  would,  as  it  ever  had  done,  excite  the  na- 
tionalistic spirit  of  Germany.  It  was  deep-rooted; 
It  was  at  the  core  of  evei-y  German  heart.  Liberal- 
ism was  but  a  name.  The  people  had  been  fed  with 
Its  so-called  fruits,  but  they  were  only  the  bribes  of 
autocracy  to  reconcile  them  to  a  government  which 
was  not  a  people's  government,  and  to  a  Parliament 
In  which  the  people's  representatives  had  no  real  con- 

*  Oman's  History  of  England,  Vol.  Ill,  chap,  xix,  p.  350. 


THE  DAY  — AND  THE  MAN  31 

trol.  The  cry  of  world-power  would  arouse  am- 
bition, stir  the  blood  of  a  martial  race,  dissolve  party, 
and  for  the  moment  obliterate  Socialism.  Further, 
there  was  a  ruler  on  the  throne,  restless,  eager,  in- 
stinct with  pride  of  race  and  family,  steeped  in  the 
traditions  of  his  people,  worshipping  at  the  shrine  of 
its  past  glories  and  heroes,  cherishing  with  deepest 
reverence  his  great  inheritance,  impatiently,  blindly, 
honestly  resolute  to  pass  it  on  to  his  successors  in 
greater  splendour,  "  The  Day  "  came  at  the  bid- 
ding of  the  militarists  with  the  Kaiser  at  their  head. 
Not  France,  or  Austria,  or  Denmark,  or  Hanover,  or 
Poland,  was  the  ultimate  object  of  attack  this  time, 
but  England.  From  England's  Empire,  after  Rus- 
sia and  France  had  been  maimed,  modern  Germany 
would  gather  new  strength  to  go  on,  new  territory, 
new  power,  and  new  glory.  In  doing  so  her  people 
would  reunite  their  forces,  disintegration  would  be 
stayed,  democratic  advance  would  be  smothered  in 
national  pride  and  conquest;  for  another  generation 
at  least  the  autocracy  of  the  throne  and  the  power  of 
the  Junker  would  be  strengthened.  The  spirit  of 
nationality  would  hush  the  voices  of  internal  discord; 
stem  any  effective  movement  towards  Liberalism; 
regalvanize  the  Empire;  prevent  the  work  of  1870 
from  sharing  the  fate  of  the  work  of  the  earlier  em- 
pire-makers of  Germany.  It  was  a  logical  policy, 
and  it  was  worked  out  with  consummate  skill  once  the 
end  was  fixed.  The  great  system  of  war  organiza- 
tion slowly  outspread  till  it  covered  every  phase  of 
the  national  life.  It  was  a  colossal  thing  which  had 
to  be  done,  and  a  colossal  implement  was  manu- 
factured to  do  the  work.  The  milHon  little  things 
perfected  made  the  one  big  thing  a  prodigious  engine 
of   assault.     Science,    logic,   ceaseless   industry   and 


32         THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

skilful  methods  gave  such  a  result  that  the  world  only 
saw  in  armies  of  millions  of  men  —  fathers,  brothers, 
sons  —  a  hideous  machine  moving  with  awful  exact- 
ness upon  old  battlefields,  Implacable,  desolating,  in- 
human in  Its  grim  precision. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   K.'^ISER   AND    HIS   POLICY 

Forty-five  years  have  passed  since  the  Franco- 
Prussian  War,  and  William  II  has  occupied  the 
throne  of  Prussia  and  been  German  Emperor  for 
more  than  half  that  time.  It  is,  therefore,  impos- 
sible to  realize  German  policy  or  arrive  at  an  under- 
standing of  German  purposes  without  taking  Into  ac- 
count his  character  and  personality,  his  constitutional 
position,  and  his  power  practically  exercised  in  the 
State  during  all  that  time.  When,  in  1888,  William, 
already  called  the  War  Lord,  ascended  the  throne, 
he  was  regarded  as  a  peril  to  the  peace  of  Europe; 
and  German  apologists  have  of  late  declared  that  the 
best  proof  of  Germany's  peaceful  intentions  was  the 
fact  that,  despite  prophecy,  the  Kaiser  had  kept  the 
sword  sheathed  during  all  that  period. 

It  would  be  estimating  Germany  and  its  ruler  too 
lightly  to  assume  that  they  would  have  gone  to  war 
willingly  with  this  country,  or  with  France  or  Russia, 
at  any  time  since  1875,  until  four  or  five  years  ago. 
Indeed,  it  is  quite  certain  that  so  far  as  an  attack  on 
this  country  is  concerned,  a  further  delay  to  give  time 
for  increased  naval  development  would  have  been 
welcome.  Had  circumstances  been  different;  had 
not  the  internal  conditions  of  both  France  and  Eng- 
land been  of  such  a  nature  as  to  suggest  complete  un- 
readiness and  unwillingness  for  war ;  had  it  not  been  a 
conviction  of  the  Kaiser's  Government  that  we  would 
not  enter  the  present  conflict,  there  can  be  no  doubt 

33 


34  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

that  Germany  would  have  hesitated  before  striking 
the  great  blow  which  was  to  decide  the  future  of  Eu- 
rope for  many  a  long  day.  It  was  her  design  to  take 
France  and  Russia  first,  and  ourselves  afterwards. 
That  is  the  testimony  of  her  own  frank  commen- 
tators, who  in  their  disdain,  and  because  they  despised 
us,  thought  they  could  say  it  boldly  and  to  our  con- 
fusion. 

It  was  essential  to  her  vast  ambition  and  purposes 
that  Germany  should  be  powerful,  commercially  and 
industrially;  that  she  should  have  stored  wealth  and 
resources;  have  secured  stability  of  finance,  a  world- 
wide mercantile  marine,  a  powerful  navy,  and  an 
army  of  such  size  and  efficiency  as  could  represent  a 
two-power  standard,  before  she  loosed  her  formid- 
able engine  of  aggression  upon  the  world.  As  things 
turned  out  there  is  no  doubt  that  this  war  came  too 
soon,  in  one  sense,  for  Germany's  designs;  but  the 
time  and  the  incidents  of  contemporary  European  his- 
tory were  so  favourable  that  she  could  well  waive  the 
increased  strength  and  power  which  would  come  from 
a  few  more  years'  waiting,  and  stake  all  on  the  haz- 
ard. She  did  so,  and  in  attempting  to  trace  the 
tragedy  back  to  its  source,  the  Kaiser  must  ever  be 
kept  in  mind. 

It  is  impossible  to  dissociate  his  personality,  his 
speeches  and  his  actions  from  the  policy  of  his  coun- 
try; and  this  must  be  said  frankly,  that  his  policy 
and  himself  are  the  nation. .  They  are  not  separate 
or  detached,  but  are  one  and  indivisible  in  sympathy 
and  in  action  where  this  war  Is  concerned.  No  ruler 
of  the  modern  world  has  ever  so  completely  possessed 
and  controlled  both  the  political  and  social  forces  of 
his  country,  or  the  admiration,  and,  indeed,  the  af- 
fections of  his  people,  as  William  II  has  done. 
Parties  exist  in  the  State,  but  the  legislative  policy  Is 


THE  EMPEROR  ABSOLUTE  35 

that  of  the  Kaiser.  There  is  the  Chancellor  as  active 
statesman  in  the  Reichstag,  but  really  only  the  mouth- 
piece of  the  Kaiser.  In  any  modern  democratic 
party  sense  there  are  no  leaders,  there  is  no  Prime 
Minister;  the  Kaiser  is  the  fountain  of  legislative  in- 
spiration, the  practical  arbiter  of  legislative  action. 
The  Sovereign  has  the  power  of  absolute  veto  on 
the  decisions  of  the  two  Chambers  of  the  Diet,  whose 
performances  in  a  parliamentary  sense  are  little  more 
than  those  of  the  defunct  Federal  Council  of  Aus- 
tralia, which,  before  the  Commonwealth  union, 
passed  laws  not  binding  on  the  Governments  of  the 
different  provinces. 

There  is  no  initiative  in  a  German  Parliament; 
there  is  no  real  responsibility;  it  affords  opportunity 
for  criticism;  no  more.  Ministerial  responsibility  to 
Parliament  is  a  myth.  Bismarck  himself  said  that 
there  was  no  legal  redress  against  ministers,  that  the 
country  and  Parliament  could  only  say,  "  You  have 
acted  incapably,  not  to  say  stupidly."  The  Crown 
appoints  and  dismisses  ministers,  and  the  Chancellor 
is  merely  the  alter  ego  politically  of  the  Kaiser,  even 
when  he  appears  to  criticize  his  master  in  the  Reich- 
stag. William  II,  unlike  some  of  his  predecessors, 
has  the  astuteness  to  know  when  to  appease  the  public 
which  has  some  real  or  fancied  grievance  against  him- 
self. He  carefully  prepares  his  own  sackcloth  and 
ashes,  as  was  the  case  after  the  Daily  Telegraph  in- 
terview, when  his  Chancellor  let  him  down  very  care- 
fully in  the  Reichstag,  while  William  ruefully,  yet 
cynically,  waited  for  the  storm  to  pass;  but  he  never 
forgave  Prince  Biilow  for  the  terms  in  which  his  peni- 
tence was  expressed. 

German  impatience  with  the  Kaiser  has  never  been 
very  real,  as  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that,  since 
1888,  there  has  never  been  an  attempt  to  readjust  the 


36  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

position  of  the  ruler  and  his  subjects  in  the  Consti- 
tution. The  Kaiser  makes  policy,  and  he  carries  out 
policy;  his  Parhament  can  advise,  can  meddle,  can  re- 
tard, but,  according  to  the  present  interpretation  of 
the  Constitution,  it  can  do  no  more.  He  performs 
the  double  function  of  being  his  own  Prime  Minister, 
initiating  legislation  and  exercising  the  power  of  veto 
at  the  same  time.  The  franchise  shuts  out  masses  of 
the  people  from  representation,  while  the  Junkers 
control  the  Prussian  Diet.  It  in  turn  controls  the 
Reichstag  despite  manhood-suffrage,  which  is  sup- 
posed to  give  it  democratic  character.  The  system 
within  the  system  neutralizes  all  democratic  power  in 
the  German  Parliament.  That  member  of  the  Reich- 
stag who  said,  "  The  man  who  compared  this  House 
to  a  Hall  of  Echoes  was  not  far  wrong,"  made  a  just 
criticism  on  a  paradoxical  situation. 

A  powerful  writer  in  the  Quarterly  Review  for  the 
first  quarter  of  1871,  says: 

"  The  mistake  apt  to  be  made  on  this  side  of  the  Channel 
about  the  political  career  of  Bismarck  is  that  of  unconsciously 
crediting  Prussia  with  the  Parhamentary  precedents  and  tra- 
ditions of  England.  But  the  most  cherished  Prussian  tra- 
ditions and  precedents  have  always  been  those  of  mihtary 
monarchy  and  aristocracy.  These  have  always  been  asso- 
ciated from  first  to  last  with  all  her  modern  advances  in 
the  scale  of  nations.  .  .  .  The  organization  of  the  army,  due 
to  Frederick  William  I  and  Frederick  II,  had  begirt  the 
throne  with  a  mihtary  aristocracy  founded  on  a  landed  basis, 
and  which  has  not  been  taken  off  that  basis  by  the  modern 
reforms  of  the  system.  This  has  preserved  that  species  of 
modern  feudahsm  in  the  Prussian  army  which  regards  the 
obhgation  of  loyalty  to  the  Crown  as  paramount  to  that  of 
allegiance  to  any  paper  or  parliamentary  constitution." 

That  was  true  in  the  time  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
it  was  true  even  in  the  days  of  18 13,  when  a  so-called 


IMPOTENCE  OF  THE  REICHSTAG         37 

Liberalism  had  Its  birth  in  Prussia,  as  Bismarck  an- 
nounced In  his  maiden  speech  in  the  Prussian  United 
Diet  in  1847.  On  that  occasion  he  repudiated  the 
idea  that  the  great  movement  of  that  day  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  "  the  popular  claims  for  a  constitu- 
tion," and  declared  it  to  be  simply  a  national  move- 
ment for  redeeming  the  country  from  the  shame  of 
1 806  and  for  freeing  it  from  "  the  disgrace  of  a  for- 
eign yoke." 

The  brilliant  writer  In  the  Quarterly  quotes  Count 
Rehberg,  a  Hanoverian  statesman,  as  saying  at 
the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  that  "  Prussia 
is  not  a  country  that  possesses  an  army,  but  an 
army  which  possesses  a  country";  and  M.  Cher- 
buliez,  a  French  writer,  as  declaring  that  "  The 
Prussian  Government  sets  its  Chambers  at  de- 
fiance, because,  in  Prussia,  there  is  nothing  solid  in 
the  shape  of  institutions  save  the  administration  and 
the  army." 

The  Junkers  who  fought  the  Constitution  of  Fred- 
erick William  IV  would  undoubtedly  abolish  It  to- 
day ;  but  failing  that  they  bend  it  to  their  will  with  the 
help  of  the  Kaiser.  Who,  in  our  day,  ever  asks  what 
the  German  Parliament  is  doing?  The  question  has 
been  always,  What  is  the  Kaiser  doing?  We  have 
heard  more  of  late  years  of  the  influence  of  the  Rus- 
sian Duma  than  of  the  acts  of  the  German  Reichstag. 
The  Reichstag  has  played  a  small  part  In  the  history 
of  modern  Germany.  The  same  class  of  men  with 
Bismarck  at  their  head,  who,  to  build  up  a  great  army 
secretly  In  1865,  made  the  constitution  a  scrap  of 
paper  by  refusing  to  submit  a  budget,  are  In  power  to- 
day. At  their  head  is  a  sovereign  who  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  dissolve  his  Parliament,  as  he  did  In  1 893,  if  he 
wants  money  and  it  hesitates  to  give  it  to  him.  Wil- 
liam  11  keeps  his  head  while  doing  this;  Charles  I 


38  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

lost  his.     More  than  once  the   Kaiser  has,   In  his 
speeches,  set  the  army  above  Parliament: 

"  The  soldier  and  the  army  and  not  parliamentary  major- 
ities and  resolutions  have  welded  together  the  German  Em- 
pire.    My  confidence  is  fixed  on  the  army." 

That  is  the  mediseval  attitude,  but  it  was  not  mere 
phrasing  or  mere  impulse.  It  was  the  echo  of  his 
once  beloved  and  finally-rejected  master,  Bismarck, 
who,  however,  took  good  care  not  to  say  such  things 
publicly.  William's  first  proclamation  on  coming  to 
the  throne  was  to  the  army;  only  three  days  later  did 
he  incline  himself  towards  his  people  and,  in  a 
pedantic  proclamation  to  the  Prussian  nation,  bless 
them  also.  To  do  all  this  required  courage  and  a 
strong  will,  and  the  Kaiser  has  both.  It  is  an  Im- 
mense personality,  with  a  temperament  of  fatal  char- 
acteristics, balanced  to  some  degree,  however,  by  a 
real  practical  ability.  That  ability  is,  however,  all 
too  often  controlled  by  rashness  and  Impulse.  More 
than  all  It  is  crippled  by  self-approval  and  the  un- 
happy belief  that  its  possessor  alone  has  the  secret  of 
doing  things;  from  composing  an  opera  to  extempo- 
rizing a  sermon  or  a  speech, —  and  he  does  It  with 
skill,  readiness  and  rhetoric  —  upsetting  the  diplo- 
macy of  Europe,  designing  the  sculptural  monstros- 
ities of  the  Siegesallee,  giving  a  new  turn  to  military 
or  naval  strategy,  setting  new  fashions  in  tailoring  or 
moustaches,  conducting  a  theatrical  performance,  ad- 
vising on  domestic  affairs,  or  passing  the  word  what 
the  people  must  read  and  the  newspapers  say.  He 
can  deceive,  too.  The  inailcation  of  the  usefulness 
of  lying  has  been  a  feature  of  his  day  as  Emperor,  as 
Sir  Valentine  Chirol  has  shown  in  an  article  In  the 
Quarterly  Review  for  October,  19 14,  In  which  he 
says: 


"THE  SOLDIER  IS  EVERYTHING"         39 

"  During  my  ten  days'  stay  in  the  German  capital,  I  spent 
many  hours  in  the  Wilhelmstrasse  studying  diplomatic  doc- 
uments, put  before  me  as  '  extremely  confidential,'  of  which  I 
need  say  no  more  than  that  I  am  now  satisfied  they  had  been 
deliberately  and  grossly  garbled  for  my  better  edification." 

If  the  conception  of  a  so-called  constitutional  ruler 
is  power  and  the  aggrandizement  of  his  dynasty,  se- 
cured by  a  wonderful  army  and  strong  navy,  in  a 
country  whose  pride  of  conquest  and  advance  got  by 
conquest  is  great,  then  militarism  and  its  evils  are 
bound  to  flourish  and  ambition  for  national  glory  will 
bemuse  the  minds  of  a  people.  Then  it  is  possible 
for  a  monarch  to  say,  as  the  Kaiser  did  confidently 
say: 

"  It  is  my  business  alone  to  decide  if  there  shall  be  war.  .  .  . 
The  more  I  get  behind  party  cries  and  party  considerations, 
the  more  firmly  and  surely  do  I  count  on  my  army  and  the 
more  definitely  do  I  hope  that  my  army,  whether  abroad  or 
at  home,  will  follow  my  wishes.  .  .  .  The  soldier  has  not 
to  have  a  will  of  his  own ;  you  must  all,  indeed,  have  one 
will,  but  that  is  my  will;  there  is  only  one  law,  and  that  is 
my  law." 

^  Bismarck  reduced  all  this  to  an  axiom  when,  with 
his  rare  gift  of  phrase,  he  said,  "  So  it  is  throughout 
civil  life:  the  soldier  is  everything,  the  civilian  just 
what  remains." 

The  Kaiser  is  in  short  the  throne  and  the  power 
behind  the  throne;  and  his  policy  has  been  inde- 
pendent enough  to  warrant  the  term  original,  though 
the  wisdom  of  the  originality  is  now  being  scarch- 
ingly  and  critically  tested.  It  had  its  advent  on  the 
day  when  he  dropped  the  great  pilot  who  had  steered 
Germany  through  heavy  seas  with  skill  and  insight, 
and    with    a    mind    as    astute    as    it    was    unscrupu- 


40  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

lous,  as  witty  as,  politically,  it  was  wanton.  Bis- 
marck was  never  rash,  and  therein,  with  his  vision, 
his  wisdom  and  his  craft,  lay  his  power.  His 
satirical  remark  to  a  famous  British  statesman  now 
dead  illustrates  his  contempt  for  rash  adventures. 
In  a  certain  year  of  last  century  he  made  the  mordant 
comment  that,  "  The  wild  steeds  of  French  policy 
are  once  more  galloping  through  the  sands  of  Tunis, 
and  hard  galloping  they  find  it." 

Bismarck's  policy  had  been  to  develop  Germany, 
commercially  and  industrially;  to  make  her  rich  and 
secure  internally,  to  give  her,  as  he  said,  "  a  back- 
bone of  iron  and  ribs  of  gold  " ;  and  the  process  pro- 
ceeded with  the  most  consummate  organization  under 
his  firm  and  steady  hand.  His  idea  was  to  secure 
commercial  domination  v/herever  possible  in  the 
world  and,  having  secured  that,  in  some  opportune 
and  perhaps  distant  hour,  impose  political  domina- 
tion; but  political  domination  within  the  German 
Empire  was  his  first  and  constant  thought.  With 
pure  Brandenburger  pride  and  ambition  he  was  de- 
termined that  Germany  should  be  ruled  by  Pmssia ; 
that  it  should  be  disciplined,  dragooned,  organized 
and  inspired  by  the  idea  that  the  State  was  all  and  the 
individual  nothing  save  the  servant  of  the  State,  born 
to  make  the  State  glorious  even  at  the  sacrifice  of 
himself  in  the  unit  or  in  the  mass;  and  that  the  Ger- 
man Empire  should  be  the  nucleus  of  a  great  Euro- 
pean Confederation  ruled  by  Prussia.  The  idea 
prevailed.  Germany  was  practically  Prussianized  as 
a  whole,  and  when  the  present  Emperor  came  to  the 
throne  he  was  in  an  atmosphere  of  Prussian  pride  and 
ambition  which  had  penetrated  even  to  jealous  and 
reluctant  Bavaria.  But  Prussian  materialism,  pride 
and  ambition,  would  not  have  found  the  terrible  ex- 
pression of  this  moment  had  it  not  been  for  the 


WILLIAM  AND  LOUIS  QUATORZE         41 

Kaiser,  had  Bismarck's  cautious  and  conservative 
policy  been  continued.  An  imposing  historical 
parallel  to  the  Kaiser's  career  may  be  found  in  that 
of  a  monarch  of  two  hundred  years  ago.  Every 
student  must  have  been  struck  by  the  strange  likeness 
between  the  policies,  and  most  of  all,  perhaps,  be- 
tween the  men  responsible  for  the  wars  of  1702-13 
and  those  of  19 14.  In  Louis  Quatorze,  there  Is  the 
young  man  taking  in  his  own  hands  the  power  created 
by  Richelieu  and  Mazarin  and  thenceforth  ruling  in 
lonely  absolutism.  "  I  will  be  my  own  Prime  Minis- 
ter," said  the  grand  monarch,  and  Colbert  becomes  a 
collector  of  taxes.  Like  Wilhelm,  Louis  must  have 
a  place  in  the  sun.  He  becomes  Le  Roi  Soldi,  build- 
ing and  beautifying  with  lavish  expenditure;  "  over- 
coming the  Pyrenees  "  to  reach  at  Spain's  colonial 
dominions;  scheming  and  planning  aggression 
through  long  years;  fomenting  civil  war  in  England 
as  a  means  to  an  end;  Ignoring  or  crushing  internal 
grumblings;  piling  up  taxes  on  his  people;  pos- 
ing as  the  divinely  appointed  Instrument;  pur- 
suing ambitions  which  unite  Europe  against  him 
and  In  the  end  shatter  the  great  edifice  he  has 
erected.  For  Mazarin,  read  Bismarck,  for  Colbert, 
read  Herr  von  Bethmann-Hollweg,  and  little  is  left 
to  alter. 

From  boyhood,  William  was  a  dreamer,  but  a 
dreamer  of  the  selfish,  material,  grandiose  type,  with 
intellect  powerful  enough  to  make  him,  with  his  op- 
portunities, a  great  force,  and  with  a  personality  of 
singular  impresslveness.  It  was  clear  from  the  start 
that,  European  war  or  no  European  war,  a  mediaeval 
greed  of  power  was  the  desire  of  his  heart.  He 
was  a  spangler  from  the  beginning;  though  sometimes 
he  assumed  the  role  of  modesty,  which  merely  pro- 
vided   a   background    for   outbreaks   of   passionate 


42         THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

declaration  that  he  was  made  a  gift  to  the  world  and 
set  upon  a  throne,  so  that  with  the  blessing  of  Provi- 
dence Germany  should  exalt  herself  and  save  the 
world  by  her  ideals. 

For  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  the  doctrine  has 
been  preached  sedulously  by  German  leaders  of 
thought  that  the  modern  German  Empire  must  re- 
new the  glories  of  the  ancient  German  Empire  by 
force  of  conquest;  by  the  valour  of  the  magnificent 
"  blond  beast  lustfully  roving  in  search  of  booty 
and  victory,"  as  Nietzsche,  in  his  new  nationalism, 
put  it.  It  was  declared  that  the  inheritance  of  the 
ages  was  theirs;  that  Germany  was  the  only  nation 
which  could  influence  the  world  for  its  own  good; 
that  the  British  Empire,  decadent,  sodden,  incapable, 
had  done  nothing  to  justify  its  place  in  the  world,  got 
by  robbery;  that  it  must  be  displaced  to  make  way 
for  a  German  Empire ;  and  that  a  German  Empire 
would  establish  a  new  world-life,  world-thought,  and 
world-aspiration.  Culture  and  the  sword;  this  was 
the  basis  of  the  policy;  material  progress  to  make 
the  power  behind  the  sword;  this  has  been  the 
ideal  cherished  and  nourished  by  the  German  people: 
and  the  present  conflict  is  the  result  of  a  soulless 
materialism. 

Is  this  mere  rhetoric?  From  the  day  William  II 
came  to  the  throne  he  has  been  obsessed  by  the  idea 
that  he  is  a  special  and  chosen  instrument  of  Heaven 
to  speak  to  his  people  and  to  the  world  through  his 
people.  Born  under  the  banners  of  a  brand  new  Em- 
pire which  was  self-made,  bravely  made,  and  as 
showy  as  a  parvenu ;  placed  higher  than  all  other  men 
in  the  world,  save  the  negligible  King  of  England  and 
the  isolated  Tsar  of  Russia,  William  still  saw  himself 
lacking  in  the  dominions  and  colonies  possessed  by 
those  lesser  than  himself  —  like  the  ruler  of  these 


A  DIVINE  MISSION  43 

islands,  who  did  not  know  how  to  manage  an  Empire, 
to  give  it  a  policy,  to  make  it  a  blessing  to  the  world. 
He  preached  the  doctrine  that  only  through  himself, 
a  sacredly  inspired  agent,  could  Germany  be  made  su- 
preme ;  that  only  through  Germany  could  the  world 
rise  to  summits  of  a  true  civilization  and  rid  itself  of 
the  smother  of  an  incubus  called  the  British  Empire. 
He  has  himself  provided  an  ever-watchful  and  inter- 
ested, not  to  say  admiring,  world  with  the  motif  of 
his  grand  opera  of  dominion;  has  provided  a  portrait 
of  himself  painted  by  himself,  revealing  the  inner 
working  of  a  nature  as  unusual,  as  varied,  as  adroit, 
able  and  —  because  of  his  autocratic  position  in  the 
constitution  —  dangerous,  as  the  representatives  of 
any  modern  dynasties,  at  least,  show. 

On  March  6th,  1890,  when  unveiling  the  statue  of 
the  Grand  Elector  at  Bielefeld,  the  Kaiser  said: 

"  Each  Prince  of  the  Hohenzollei-n  House  is  always  aware 
that  he  is  only  a  minister  on  earth,  that  he  must  give  account 
of  his  work  to  a  supreme  King  and  Master,  and  that  he  must 
faithfully  accomplish  the  task  ordained  for  him  by  an  order 
from  on  High." 

This  is  either  pure  incantation,  the  cry  of  the 
fanatical  mystic,  the  assumption  of  the  impostor,  or 
the  utterance  of  a  great  actor  with  a  very  real  pur- 
pose, intent  to  mislead.  It  cannot  be  attributed 
alone  to  his  undoubted  love  of  literature  of  a 
rhetorical  type,  which,  as  his  old  tutor,  M.  Ayme,i 
has  said,  showed  itself  early  and  was  a  real  taste  and 
inclination.  To  a  nature  so  ardent  and  vocal,  the 
purple  patches  in  literature  would  appeal;  they  would 
have  an  undoubted  influence  on  its  expression;  but 
the  Kaiser's  mediaeval  cymbal-clashing  was  stimulated 
by  the  pomp  of  place,  the  ordered  spectacle  of  a 

1  Stanley  Shaw's  William  of  Germany. 


44  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

great  army  ready  to  die  with  his  name  on  their  lips, 
as  they  have  done,  indeed,  in  the  day  of  battle;  and 
the  constant  clamour  of  the  Camarilla  for  the  march 
to  the  German  Marathon.  A  nation,  or  what  looked 
like  it,  united  to  transpose  the  music  of  a  naturally 
plangent  nature  into  a  noise  that  woke  up  and  kept 
awake  the  Chancelleries  of  Europe.  Generosity  and 
tolerance  might  attribute  such  utterances  as  that  just 
quoted  to  a  highly  excited  imagination  and  a  young 
enthusiast's  obsession,  but  twenty-five  years  after  he 
came  to  the  throne  William  repeated  his  "  divine 
right  "  theory  and  announced  his  sacredly  inspired 
mission.  On  August  25th,  19 10,  at  Konigsberg,  this 
was  his  declaration: 

"  Regarding  myself  as  a  tool  of  the  Lord,  without  consid- 
eration for  the  notions  and  opinions  of  the  day,  I  go  my  way." 

To  say  the  least,  that  Is  a  statement  of  remarkable 
confidence  and  assurance;  but  eighteen  years  before 
this,  in  1892,  to  the  Brandenburg  Diet,  he  had  al- 
ready revealed  the  especially  select  origin  of  himself 
and  his  forebears  thus : 

"  God  has  taken  so  much  trouble  with  the  House  of  Bran- 
denburg that  He  will  not  desert  us  now." 

Of  late  the  world  has  come  to  think  that  God  did 
not  take  sufHcient  trouble  with  the  House  of  Branden- 
burg, if  it  must  be  judged  by  the  leadership  of  the 
Kaiser,  who  takes  as  his  exemplar  that  notorious  but 
not  approved  figure  of  history,  Attila,  whose  chief 
gift,  apart  from  sheer  military  prowess,  not,  it  is 
understood,  possessed  hy  his  imitator,  was  sacking 
towns  and  murdering  helpless  civil  populations. 
But  the  stones  and  ashes  of  many  a  Belgian  and 
French  town  prove  that  the  Kaiser  has  well  sustained 


THE  MODERN  ATTILA  45 

some  of  the  traditions  of  "  the  blond  beast  lustfully 
roving"  of  bygone  days.  The  matter  is  important 
enough  to  warrant  the  reference,  for  it  has  received 
full  support  in  the  history  of  the  present  war,  made 
hideous  by  the  rejection  of  the  laws  of  humanity  and 
by  a  cruelty  the  more  loathsome  because  of  the  age 
in  which  we  live;  not  the  age  of  the  Inquisition,  of 
hanging  for  the  stealing  of  a  sheep,  of  mutilation  for 
an  offence  against  the  law  —  the  method  of  the 
Mahdi  in  the  Soudan.  The  Mahdi,  the  Khalifa,  the 
Mad  Mullah,  Attila,  Alva  and  Tilly,  each  inspired 
their  armies  with  energy,  courage,  and  the  love  of 
loot,  lust  and  cruelty;  and  the  last  monarch  of  the 
Brandenburgs  has  been  able  to  do  the  same. 

On  July  30th,  1900,  so  the  London  Times  re- 
ported —  it  quotes  from  the  JVeser  Zeitung  of 
Bremen  —  William  said : 

"  Let  all  who  fall  into  your  hands  be  at  your  mercy.  Just 
as  the  Huns  a  thousand  years  ago,  under  the  leadership  of 
Attila,  gained  a  reputation  in  virtue  of  which  they  still  live 
in  historical  tradition,  so  may  the  name  of  Germany  become 
known  in  such  a  manner  in  China  that  no  Chinaman  will  ever 
even  dare  look  askance  at  a  German." 

The  Kaiser  always  meant  what  he  said,  when  thus 
admonishing  his  people  and  his  army.  The  world 
has  mistaken  him  in  this.  All  these  long  years  he 
has  stood  in  his  shop-window,  flourished  his  sword 
and  declaimed  in  "  shining  armour,"  which  was  his 
figure  of  speech  in  announcing  that  he  and  Francis- 
Joseph  were  brothers  in  arms  —  Francis-Joseph  be- 
ing the  victim  of  the  embrace;  but  the  world  cried 
"Showman!"  and  made  due  allowance.  He  ad- 
dressed the  Tsar  of  Russia  as  "  The  Lord  of  the 
Pacific,"  and  himself  as  "  The  Lord  of  the  Atlantic  "  ; 
and  Great  Britain  shrugged  its  shoulders,  though  in 


46  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

the  circle  of  Prussian  militarism  great  and  sincere  ap- 
plause greeted  his  declarations.  He  was  the  mouth- 
piece of  the  war-makers.  The  showy  and  careful 
rhetoric  of  his  utterances  did  its  work,  with  the  Ger- 
man people.  That  was  what  the  Junkers  wanted. 
The  Kaiser  was  a  first-class  herald;  a  great  missioner, 
a  successful  commercial  traveller  for  Prussian  war- 
wares.  The  average  person  outside  Germany  re- 
garded it  all  as  a  part  of  the  organized  effort  of  the 
nouveaii  riche  among  the  nations  to  draw  attention  to 
itself,  to  summon  the  world  to  mark  its  wonderful 
progress  —  and  it  was  wonderful  progress,  and  the 
Kaiser  had  a  right  to  be  proud  of  that  at  least.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  world,  however,  had  a  half-cynical 
good-humoured  smile  for  it  all;  tolerance  refused  to 
see  menace  in  the  rainbow  or  storm-cloud  phrases. 

There  were  those,  however,  who  knew;  who 
realized  the  exact  truth.  To  them  the  Kaiser  was 
more  than  a  great  advertising  agent;  than  a  Bom- 
bastes  Furioso.  He  was  a  man,  loving  his  country 
next  to  himself,  with  an  insatiable  ambition  and  com- 
mendable energy;  with  the  maggot  of  German  pre- 
dominance in  his  brain.  His  was  a  brain  of  a  highly 
modern  type,  with  a  nervous  system  behind  it  most 
sensitively,  not  to  say  over-sensitively,  strung;  with 
romanticism  rooted  in  him,  but  with  a  practical 
quality  which  would  make  it  fit  in  with  all  sordid  ma- 
terial purposes;  with  an  iron  will  to  hold  it  there, 
and,  as  Bismarck  said,  without  a  heart.  With  him, 
one  fad,  or  pursuit  of  theory,  gave  way  to  another 
with  lightning  rapidity,  but  each  was  sustained  by  un- 
flagging energy  and  adroitness  while  it  lasted. 
Quick  at  assimilation,  abnormal  in  seizing  superficial 
points,  absorbing  like  a  sponge,  studious  without  be- 
ing   scholarly,    mad    to    apply    science    without    a 


"HIS  OWN  PRIME  MINISTER"  47 

deep  knowledge  of  science,  determined  to  be  the 
inspiring  centre,  the  magnetic  battery  for  a  whole 
people  —  in  every  department  of  life  William  II  has 
expended  himself  without  acute  judgment,  sometimes 
with  rashness,  yet  with  momentarily  passing  shrewd- 
ness, and  always  with  an  engaging  showiness,  mental 
display  and  grim  determination.  His  egotism,  how- 
ever, has  been  his  bane.  He  has  failed  to  choose 
great  men  who  could  make  him  still  greater  by  their 
knowledge  and  wise  support.  Instead  of  calling 
upon  experienced  statesmen  to  do  the  work  of  states- 
manship, with  all  the  political  organization  and  the 
spread  of  policy  which  it  involves,  William,  in  fact, 
if  not  constitutionally,  has  been  his  own  Prime  Minis- 
ter, his  own  heads  of  departments.  He  has  been 
political  preacher  and  propagandist,  commercial  edi- 
tor and  manager,  Draconian  lawgiver,  diplomatist 
and  social  doctor  of  the  nation; 

Maximilian  Harden,  in  his  book,  Monarchs  and 
Men,  speaks  thus  of  the  Kaiser's  absolute  and  per- 
sonal rule : 

"  When  will  the  Bismarck  drama  become  historical  and 
take  its  place  in  the  German  myths,  to  which  the  pain  of  fresh 
experience  adds  daily?  When  the  error  which  turned  it  into 
a  sad  catastrophe  is  set  right;  when  the  maturing  Emperor  of 
the  Germans  banishes,  as  he  once  banished  his  most  loyal 
servant,  the  illusion  that  he  can  rule  alone.  No  monarch  can 
now  rule  alone.  He  must,  however  brilliant  be  his  endow- 
ment, think  himself  fortunate  if  he  can,  without  shirking  his 
duty,  unburden  himself  of  the  responsibility  for  the  colossal 
machine." 

Restless,  exuberant,  sharp  as  a  street  Arab,  primi- 
tive in  his  vanity  as  a  music-hall  actress,  ungrateful  to 
those  who  served  him  —  dropping  them  like  hot  po- 


48  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

tatoes  when  his  need  was  over  —  surrounded  by 
sycophants,  lured  by  dragoons  Into  deeper  depths  of 
mihtarism,  the  Kaiser  has  always  had,  however,  one 
persistent  idea  —  the  aggrandizement  of  his  coun- 
try, its  control  of  the  councils  of  the  world,  its  power 
to  swing  civilization  to  a  Prussian  centre.  However 
much  he  fluttered,  vapouring  from  idea  to  idea, 
"  Deutschland  iiber  alles  "  was  ever  ringing  in  his 
brain;  and  his  magnetic  personality  and  devotion  to 
his  ambition  gained  for  him  the  loyalty  of  a  people 
in  whom  ideas  are  ever  carried  to  the  end  with  ter- 
rible and  unwavering  logic. 

Absolutism  in  the  Kaiser  has  had  a  long  and  suc- 
cessful run.  Caprivi,  Hohenlohe,  Biilow,  Beth- 
mann-Hollweg  have  all  been  puppets,  not  leaders, 
and  without  statesmen  guiding  the  policy  of  parties, 
with  a  ruler  who  controls  a  Parliament,  democracy 
has  had  no  real  opportunity  in  Germany.  When  a 
Reichstag  objected  to  the  Kaiser's  policy,  it  was  sent 
to  the  country,  where  Nationalism,  the  Navy,  Ger- 
man predominance  was  ever  the  cry;  and  on  a  wave 
of  Chauvinism  the  Kaiser  got  his  way,  in  spite  of  a 
sullen  democracy  and  a  powerful  Socialistic  party. 
The  cry  of  future  gain  by  German  predominance  was 
the  lure ;  the  world  converted  by  a  huge  military  and 
naval  organization  —  Germany  stretching  from  the 
North  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  westward  to 
the  Atlantic,  was  now  the  outspoken  or  now  the 
whispered  hope :  and  again  the  Emperor,  resource- 
ful, buoyant,  domineering,  celebrated,  had  his  way. 
He  was  a  spectacular  figure  in  the  world,  and  his 
people  loved  him  for  it. 

When  he  wanted  more  money  for  defence,  when 
he  was  annoyed  and  dismayed  by  the  opposition  to 
increase  of  the  army  and  extension  of  the  two  years' 
military  service,  he  declared  confidently,  arrogantly, 


KAISERISM  AT  WORK  49 

like  any  party  demagogue  in  power,  that  "  He  would 
smash  the  opposition  ";  which  he  did.  The  Kaiser's 
attitude  to  his  people  has  been  consistently  patri- 
archal and  Olympian  —  at  once  beneficent  and  tyran- 
nical. As  an  instance,  let  us  recall  his  speech  to  a 
deputation  of  the  Agricultural  League  on  February 
1 8th,  1896.     On  that  occasion  he  said: 

"  In  the  desire  of  helping  yourselves  .  .  .  you  allowed 
yourselves  to  be  drawn  last  year  into  an  agitation  of  words 
and  writings  beyond  all  permissible  limits,  which  profoundly 
wounded  me  in  my  paternal  love  of  the  people.  To-day, 
however,  like  the  East  Prussians,  you  have  made  me  forget 
jour  fault." 

It  reads  like  the  speech  of  some  Oriental  potentate 
of  past  days,  this  magnificent  assumption  of  absolu- 
tism in  a  democratic  world.  The  power  of  life  and 
death,  the  terror  of  authority;  the  benevolence  of  a 
father,  the  judgment  of  a  supreme  Cadi  speaks  in  his 
words.  It  was  the  heaven-born  oracular;  and  the 
crushed  agriculturists  bowed  their  heads  and  passed 
on  again  to  their  troubles  unrelieved.  Kaiserism  in 
the  hands  of  a  master  taught  them  to  have  obedience 
and  faith  if  they  could  not  have  content  or  justice. 

Fascinated  by  his  advertisement  of  their  common 
country  and  his  glittering  personality,  believing  that 
the  path  which  William  was  treading  would  lead  them 
to  an  Imperial  predominance,  the  majority  of  his 
people  have  exhibited  in  their  devotion  the  same 
spirit  which  Prince  Flenry  showed  when  he  was  sent 
to  the  Far  East  in  1897  as  Admiral  in  command  of  a 
second  German  Cruiser  Division.  It  was  then  his 
august  brother  said  to  him  : 

"  If  any  one  dares  to  interfere  with  our  good  right, 
ride  in  with  the  mailed  fist,"  and  Prince  Henry  re- 
plied, in  these  monumental  words:     "  Neither  gold 


\ 


50  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

nor  laurels  attract  me.  .  .  .  My  one  desire  Is  to  pro- 
claim the  gospel  of  your  sacred  person  in  foreign 
parts." 

The  Kaiser  does  not  stand  upon  the  ground  of 
democratic  advance  and  peaceful  development. 
War  and  the  achievements  of  war,  a  fatuous  wor- 
ship of  the  Brandenburgers  and  their  military  his- 
tory, have  been  behind  all  that  he  has  done.  Future 
war  was  ever  in  his  mind,  as  the  world  now  knows. 

He  has  been  devoid  of  any  real  sympathy  with 
democracy.  His  chief  idea  has  been  to  keep  it  in 
order.  On  May  14th,  1889,  he  was  good  enough  to 
say,  in  addressing  a  body  of  workmen,  that  he  took 
a  lively  interest  in  their  class.  He  exhorted  the 
miners  to  abstain  from  all  connection  with  political 
parties,  especially  with  the  Socialists,  and  he  added: 

*'  As  soon  as  I  see  disorders  tending  toward  Socialism,  I 
shall  employ  strong  measures  to  repress  them ;  and  as  the 
power  of  which  the  Government  disposes  is  considerable,  the 
authors  of  the  least  disturbance  against  the  authorities  will 
be  pitilessly  shot." 

The  world  outside  Germany  now  is  aware  of  the 
true  nature  of  German  policy  and  character,  and  it 
is  needless  to  comment  extensively  upon  it  at  this 
point,  but  one  or  two  further  comments  may  be  made. 
Apologists  for  the  Kaiser  and  this  war  have  taken 
offence  at  the  charge  made  against  Germany,  that 
she  is  not  as  truly  democratic  as  Russia  in  her  gov- 
ernment to-day;  but  has  ever  the  Tsar  Nicholas  — 
called  an  autocrat  and  a  tyrant  by  the  Germans  — 
made  proclamation  to  his  people  as  ruthless  as  that 
contained  in  the  foregoing  passage,  or  in  the  follow- 
ing: 

"  If  I  ever  dream  that  Social-Democratic  opinions  are  con- 
cerned in  the  agitation  among  the  working  people  of  this  coun- 


THE  FOE  OF  DEMOCRACY  51 

try,  I  will  intervene  with  unrelenting  vigour  and  bring  to 
bear  against  such  opinions  the  full  powers  that  I  possess." 

The  declaration  that  he,  not  his  Government,  will 
exercise  these  powers  of  repression;  that  he,  not  the 
will  of  his  people,  will  suppress  Social  Democracy, 
is  enough  in  itself  to  show  how  far  removed  from 
modern  responsible  and  representative  Government 
is  the  administration  at  Berlin.  There  Is  no  country 
in  the  world  where  such  language  could  be  used  by 
a  ruler  with  impunity.  As  was  said  in  the  previous 
chapter,  political  capacity  is  feeble  in  Germany,  and 
with  the  system  of  veiled  absolutism  which  exists  so 
it  would  ever  be.  Politics  as  they  are  understood  in 
the  United  States,  France,  Italy,  or  England,  are 
not  known  or  understood  in  Germany.  Has  ever  a 
visitor  to  that  country  heard  party  politics  dis- 
cussed privately,  and  as  part-  of  the  everyday  life, 
as  they  are  in  other  democratic  countries?  Parties 
do  not  make  politics  in  Germany;  the  Kaiser  is 
the  author  of  all  policies.  There  is  comment  in 
the  Reichstag,  but  there  is  no  control  of  the  Execu- 
tive, and  the  Constitution  permits  an  almost  com- 
plete despotism  in  essentials  of  administration  and 
legislation. 

If  the  Kaiser  has  been  so  ruthlessly  impatient 
with  democracy  over  the  long  years,  alternately  chas- 
tening it  and  soothing  it,  giving  it  enormous  bribes  in 
the  way  of  social  reform,  but  checking  it  in  all  politi- 
cal development,  he  has  been  at  times  equally  impa- 
tient with  his  nobility,  and  they  have  come  under  his 
"  mailed  fist  "  more  than  once.  Addressing  his  no- 
bles on  September  6th,  1894,  he  said: 

"  I  have  been  profoundly  distressed  to  notice  that  in  the 
circles  of  the  nohih'ty  near  me,  my  best  intentions  have  been 
misunderstood,  and  some  have  been  criticized  —  I  liavc  even 


52  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

heard  of  opposition  to  them.  Gentlemen,  the  opposition  of 
Prussian  nobles  to  their  King  is  monstrous.  Opposition  can 
only  be  justified  when  it  has  the  King  at  its  head;  the  history 
of  our  House  teaches  us  that." 

He  had  his  way.  There  were  no  Runnymede 
barons  among  them.  We  describe  as  an  autocrat 
the  ruler  who  disregards  the  advice  and  ignores  the 
opposition  of  his  councillors;  but  what  name  shall  be 
applied  to  the  ruler  who  tells  his  councillors  that 
they  must  offer  no  advice  of  which  he  does  not  ap- 
prove, that  they  must  oppose  no  measure  unless  it  is 
opposed  by  the  King?  Autocracy  may  have  gone 
further  than  this,  but  obliquity  of  mind  and  fatuous 
misconception  seldom  if  ever.  It  was  the  voice  of 
1400  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1894.  Had  the  Kaiser 
been  speaking  on  behalf  of  the  people  against  the 
nobles  his  words  might  seem  less  Incongruous  to  mod- 
ern ears;  but  William  II  has  been  at  no  pains  to  con- 
ceal his  Isolation  from  the  people,  and  his  entrench- 
ment in  the  bosom  of  an  armed  force  which  Is  as 
much  a  weapon  to  defend  the  House  of  Hohen- 
zollern  as  to  serve  the  military  needs  and  the  aggres- 
sive purposes  of  his  country.  The  army  was  his 
home,  his  retreat  from  both  democracy  and  aristoc- 
racy. In  a  world  where  the  mere  struggle  for  ex- 
istence grows  keener  and  more  pitiless  every  day; 
where  the  adjustment  of  the  relations  between  re- 
ward and  toil  Is  so  diffiailt,  needing  the  devotion  of 
all  who  lead;  when  social  reform  Is  the  demand  of 
modern  existence,  militarism  was  and  is  the  refuge 
of  the  Brandenburger ! 

In  1894  the  Kaiser  made  a  speech  which  reveals 
his  own  Inner  conception  of  his  office,  and  shows 
how  distant  he  Is  from  any  co-operation  with  or  con- 
ception of  democracy.     The  throne  first  and  before 


THE  KAISER  AND  THE  ARMY  53 

all  in  his  mind,  then  the  people;  on  the  old  assump- 
tion, long  since  rcpudiajted  by  democratic  nations, 
that  the  salvation  of  the  people  lies  in  the  functions 
of  the  throne  and  the  benevolence  and  the  wisdom 
of  its  occupant: 

"  With  deep  sorrow  did  I  take  up  the  crown.  One  thing 
alone  beHeved  in  me  —  it  was  the  army;  and  supported  by  it, 
and  relying  on  our  God  as  of  old,  I  undertook  my  heavy 
office,  knowing  well  that  the  army  was  the  main  support  of 
the  country,  the  main  pillar  of  the  Prussian  throne." 

Prince  Hohenlohe  tells  how  William,  then  Crown 
Prince,  sided  with  the  soldier  clique  which,  for  its 
own  aggrandizement,  sought  to  thwart  his  own 
kindly  efforts  to  soften  the  rigour  of  German  rule  in 
Alsace-Lorraine,  and  "  shared  the  view  of  the  mili- 
tary that  Frenchmen  must  be  roughly  treated."  ^ 
The  ever-present,  unlovely  reciprocity  of  the  army 
and  the  Emperor  has  its  origin  in  a  sense  of  tyranny, 
hardness  and  harshness  common  to  both. 

It  is  not  thus  that  the  rulers  of  England  and 
America  speak  and  act.  The  main  pillar  of  their 
position  in  the  State  is  the  faith  and  confidence  of  a 
free,  peace-loving,  peace-ensuing  people. 

To  complete  the  logical  sequence  of  the  clauses 
of  the  Kaiser's  policy  of  Kingship  and  Government, 
one  last  reference.  On  August  31st,  1897,  unveil- 
ing a  monument  of  his  grandfather  at  Coblcnz,  and 
speaking  of  William  I,  he  said  —  and  he  has  said 
the  same  thing  many  times  since: 

"  He  was  an  instrument  chosen  by  God,  and  he  knew  it. 
For  us  all,  and  especially  for  us  Princes,  he  raised  and  made 
to  shine  most  brilliantly  a  jewel  A\hich  we  must  reverence 
and  hold  as  sacred  —  Kingship  by  Divine  Right." 

2  Memoirs.  Vol.  II,  p.  387 


54  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Napoleon  himself,  floated  on  a  tide  of  militarism 
from  the  position  of  a  subaltern  unable  to  pay  his 
laundry  bill  to  the  greatest  throne  in  the  world,  never 
arrogated  to  himself  such  high  authority  and  direct 
inspiration  from  on  high,  though  he  was  a  prince  of 
rhetoricians,  with,  however,  living  genius  behind  all. 
Though  unreasonable  and  out  of  tune  with  Anglo- 
Saxon  views  of  the  functions  of  a  sovereign,  of  any 
properly  constituted  control  of  a  nation,  the  Kaiser's 
words  were  in  tune  with  the  temper  of  the  German 
people.  Since  1864  to  the  present  day  they  have 
marched  with  an  accumulating  record  of  three  suc- 
cessful wars,  carried  through  by  a  Hohenzollern, 
stimulating  them,  and  impelling  them  towards  the 
promised  fruits  of  another  vast  war,  to  be  made 
glorious  for  Germany  by  the  success  of  their  arms 
and  the  rewards  of  their  ambitions.  These  rewards 
should  be  the  territories  and  the  savings  of  other 
nations. 

For  over  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  German  Em- 
peror, in  sonorous  speeches  of  a  common  model  of 
oratorical  force,  and  in  many  acts  of  an  apparently 
spectacular  kind  —  in  reality  of  a  deep  and  ominous 
character  —  has  given  to  the  world  his  own  political 
portrait.  To  history  may  be  left  the  difficult  an- 
alysis of  his  complex  character;  it  is  here  enough  to 
consider  briefly  his  personality  and  to  uncover  cer- 
tain springs  of  his  conduct  as  disclosed  in  his  plan- 
gent speeches,  so  nakedly  outspoken,  so  much 
couched  in  the  language  of  a  very  minor  prophet,  of 
a  Jean  Paul  Richter  or  a  Phineas  T.  Barnum. 
Nevertheless,  however  much  his  policy,  purposes, 
and  character  may  be  criticized,  the  world  is  pro- 
foundly conscious  that  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  a 
virile  and  attractive  intellect,  a  practical,  capable  and 
wilful  character,  and  a  sanguine  nature  of  unwhole- 


A  FATEFUL  DATE  55 

some  egotism,  stimulated  by  unsound  theories  of 
government  and  false  ideals  of  nationality,  have 
been  at  work  in  Europe;  and  that  a  formidable  and 
resourceful  personality  mounted  the  German  throne 
on  the  fifteenth  of  June,  1888. 


CHAPTER     III 

MIGHT  IS  RIGHT  AND  WAR  IS  THE  GERMAN  GOOD 

Before  attempting  to  inquire  closely  into  the  nature 
of  the  mission  to  which  the  Kaiser  and  his  country 
committed  themselves  soon  after  Bismarck's  fall,  it 
would  be  well  to  consider  some  of  the  forces  that 
inspired  and  supported  the  Napoleonic  ambition  of 
the  twentieth  century,  which,  however,  as  Mr.  Bonar 
Law  said  in  Parliament,  has  no  Napoleon.  If  there 
is  a  citizen  of  the  earth  that  is  vocal  it  is  the  Ger- 
man. He  has  always  thrived  on  great  cries,  and 
made  progress  only  when  he  has  had  great  men  to 
lead  him.  He  is,  and  has  always  been  the  slave 
of  an  intellectual  system.  The  support  of  a  code 
of  thought  has  been  indispensable  to  his  develop- 
ment; he  has  relied  on  pedagogy  in  every  branch 
of  his  life,  as  no  other  citizen  of  the  world  has  done. 
He  cannot  live  without  his  dogma  and  his  precedent; 
and  it  has  been  part  of  his  prodigious  strength,  in 
combination  with  his  fellows,  that  he  is  as  loyal  and 
devoted,  not  to  say  subservient,  to  a  theory  as  he  is 
to  his  Kaiser.  He  is  personally  and  he  is  nationally 
self-conscious,  and  the  national  self-consciousness  has 
made  him  morbid  in  ambition;  he  has  ever  been 
on  the  lookout  for  international  slights;  he  has  been 
alert  and  determined  to  give  Germany  the  power 
to  call  the  tune  to  the  nations;  he  has  been  more 
concerned  for  the  State,  and  his  honour  as  involved 
in  the  State,  than  for  the  development  of  the  individ- 
ual; than  for  the  common  good  made  greater 
through  the  devotion  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  individ- 

56 


THE  WILL  TO  POWER  57 

ual,  by  adjusting  one  man's  needs  and  views  to  those 
of  another.  He  has  definitely  rejected  the  creed  of 
the  Prussian  patriot  reformers  of  the  early  part  of 
the  nineteenth  century  who  were  inspired  for  the 
rnoment  at  least  by  Kant's  dogmatic  appeal :  "  The 
highest  for  all  men  is  duty,  and  the  greatest  posses- 
sion in  the  world  is  the  moral  will." 

The  present-day  German  is  the  victim  of  the  for- 
mula of  thought  and  conduct  to  which  he  commits 
himself;  and  he  is  often  massacred  by  his  own  re- 
morseless logic.  It  makes  him  fanatical,  it  renders 
him  ruthless,  but  it  gives  him  courage  for  the  frontal 
attack.  The  end  must  be  his  because  it  ought  to  be 
his  by  his  rules  of  logic.  So  in  this  war  the  soldier 
has  blindly  flung  himself  against  impossible  positions, 
because  he  is  a  slave  to  his  texts.  He  defies  the 
opinion  of  the  civilized  world;  he  spurns  those  whom 
he  wants  to  support  him, —  witness  his  fury  with 
the  Americans  when  they  do  not  approve  of  his  con- 
duct in  defying  recognized  laws  of  war  because  they 
do  not  fit  in  with  his  need  —  and  he  announces  the 
certainty  of  his  success  before  he  has  begun  to  win 
it,  simply  because  what  he  wills  should  be  and  there- 
fore must  be.  It  is  the  Will  to  Power.  It  is  also 
the  way  of  the  blunderer;  but  when  it  is  associated 
with  perfection  of  system,  with  miracles  of  organ- 
ization, with  infatuation  and  courage,  its  burning 
ploughshares  can  furrow  a  world  with  agony  and 
ruin  before  it  can  be  checked.  In  proportion,  there- 
fore, as  the  German  people  are  inspired  by  men  and 
watchwords  —  or  catchwords  —  they  are  formida- 
ble because  they  have  many  qualities  which  are  su- 
preme in  their  effectiveness.  Without  the  men  and 
the  formulae  they  sink  into  inaction  and  forceless  in- 
capacity politically  and  nationally.  They  did  so 
in  the  period  between  Frederick  the  Great's  death 


58  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

and  the  regeneration  of  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  and  again  in  that  period  which  im- 
mediately preceded  the  rise  of  Bismarck  and  Moltke, 

The  influence  of  Frederick  the  Great  has  been  far 
more  extensive  than  his  greatest  admirers,  including 
Carlyle,  avow.  Discipline,  precision,  exactness,  en- 
ergy, devotion  to  detail,  and  plodding  persistency 
were  the  characteristics  of  Frederick's  great  army, 
and  it  was  the  controlling  and  pervasive  influence 
in  all  the  life  of  Prussia  of  his  day.  All  these  quali- 
ties massed  together,  directed  by  a  powerful  and 
unwavering  mind  for  an  especial  purpose,  produced 
an  enormous  engine  of  power  and  an  equally  enor- 
mous scheme  of  national  activity  in  a  thousand  direc- 
tions, which  is  the  source  and  inspiration  of  German 
efficiency  to-day.  It  did  not  mean  initiative  or  that 
research  which  leads  to  discovery,  because  even  Fred- 
erick's military  strategy  was  tolerably  simple  and  un- 
complicated, but  it  did  mean  that  throughout  the 
whole  social  organism  of  Prussia  there  passed  some- 
thing singularly  harmonious  with  the  character  of 
the  people.  Energy  without  vision,  power  without 
sympathy,  the  ceaseless  industry  of  the  treadmill  and 
the  care  of  the  usurer,  did  not  make  for  political 
freedom,  for  social  adaptability,  or  for  that  con- 
sideration which  is  necessary  in  a  world  where  na- 
tions as  well  as  people  differ;  but  some  of  the  Ger- 
man professors  have  been  right  when,  with  another 
purpose  and  in  a  somewhat  different  meaning,  they 
have  said  in  effect  that  militarism,  that  is,  the  army 
and  the  army  at  war,  has  made  German  culture  what 
it  is. 

Now  that  German  culture  has  taken  the  course 
with  which  we  are  all  familiar,  it  is  quite  possible  to 
agree  with  the  apologists;  but  it  is  not  in  this  sense 
that  Frederick  the  Great  and  his  system  can  be  traced 


A  NATION  ORGANIZED  59 

in  the  prosperity,  industry  and  the  noble  energy  of 
Germany  to-day.  Organization  was  Frederick's 
obsession  for  a  lifetime,  and  he  laid  the  foundations 
of  an  organized  national  life  which,  while  declining 
with  his  successor,  still  was  enough  a  part  of  the 
fibre  of  the  nation  to  malce  Stein,  Hardenburg, 
Gneisenau  and  Scharnhorst,  supreme  organizers  all 
of  them,  natural  products  of  Prussian  life.  If  for  a 
generation  after  these  laboured  in  the  zenith  of  their 
day,  Prussia  again  sank  back  somewhat  through  lack 
of  strong  men  at  the  head  of  affairs  and  through  an 
ingrain  political  ineptitude;  the  instinct  and  tendency 
were  all  there  ready  to  the  hand  of  Bismarck  and 
that  greatest  of  all  organizers.  Von  Roon,  to  inocu- 
late a  nation  with  the  old  love  of  system,  unremitting 
industry  and  the  application  of  science  to  that  indus- 
try. Through  every  department  of  Prussian  life 
these  qualities,  born  of  the  discipline  of  Prussian 
arms,  passed.  Every  university  organized  its  work 
always  with  a  view  to  fitting  it  in  with  the  practical 
ambitions  and  developments  of  the  nation.  The 
State,  that  is,  the  army,  made  of  the  professors  as  it 
were  social  and  national  drill  instructors,  and  every 
university  was  in  some  sense  a  barracks.  At  the 
same  time  it  was  not  a  dry  mechanism  and  sordid 
scheme;  the  whole  system  was  lambent,  and  the  flame 
was  fed  constantly  by  the  State,  and  by  its  leaders 
with  an  intense  spirit  of  nationalism,  a  continuous 
celebration  of  the  deeds  of  Germans  in  the  far  past 
and  of  Prussians  in  the  near  present.  The  pressure 
behind  it  all  gave  stimulus  to  a  spirit  noble  as  power- 
ful when  devoted  to  great  ends,  still  powerful  and 
glowing  when  addressed  to  evil  ends. 

All  this,  however  effective  in  producing  material 
progress  and  a  plodding  skill,  which  may  have  little 
to  do  with  capacity  for  the  higher  ranges  of  human 


6o  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

effort,  does  not  make  a  nation  great;  if  it  is  joined 
to  blind  national  self-assertion  and  a  strange, 
doomed  belief  that  the  nation  has  a  mission  for  im- 
posing its  own  special  scheme  of  civilization  upon  the 
rest  of  the  world,  nothing  but  disaster  can  ensue. 
Studiousness,  even  a  splendid  studiousness,  and 
great  investigating  power,  a  love  of  philosophy  and 
a  language  which  lends  itself  to  sonorous  oratory, 
have  tended  to  produce  in  Germany  what  is  called 
intellectual  obfuscation.  Not  to  the  statesmen  of 
such  a  nation  is  given  the  Cortez  eye,  nor  to  those 
who  serve  him  is  given  that  sensibility  joined  to  prin- 
ciple, necessary  to  successful  internal  politics,  to  say 
nothing  of  external  policies. 

In  brief,  the  splendid  organization  of  the  German 
nation  to-day  is  in  essence  military.  It  is  an  inher- 
itance without  a  real  break  in  the  chain  of  succession 
from  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  has 
produced  a  vast  mechanism  of  all  departments  of 
the  nation's  life,  wonderful  in  its  detail  and  effi- 
ciency; but  it  has  also  produced  a  mind  which  is  es- 
sentially military  and  Frederician,  the  abject  slave 
of  the  big  thing.  It  bends  the  knee  to  the  17-inch 
gun,  the  maritime  leviathan,  the  Brobdignagian 
statue,  the  prodigious  opera  with  its  sensuous  storm 
and  agony  of  sound,  until  the  Monstrous  Thing  has 
become  an  ideal  and  an  idol. 

In  the  Kaiser  the  Germans  of  this  generation  had 
their  man  —  their  great  man  to  their  mind,  their 
powerful  leader  to  the  mind  of  all  the  world;  and 
in  the  cry  of  World  Power  or  Downfall,  of  victory 
by  the  virtue  and  valour  of  the  Super-race,  they  had 
what  Americans  call  their  slogan.  The  Kaiser,  who 
is  religious  in  an  Old  Testament  sense,  who  has  more 
in  common  with  Saul  than  with  Paul,  forever  cele- 
brating the  fame  and  glory  of  Germany,  could  not 


THE  PREACHERS  OF  EXPANSION  6i 

have  set  his  people  throbbing  with  the  Idea  of  con- 
quest had  there  not  been  at  hand  the  Instruments  for 
national  propaganda.  He  had  an  army  of  editors 
and  professors,  of  schoolmen  and  publicists,  of  ora- 
tors and  soldiers,  everywhere  preaching  the  doctrine 
of  "  more  room,  more  territory,  more  power." 

There  was  the  "  All-German  "  League,  founded 
In  1 89 1,  which  soon  achieved  a  membership  of  about 
half  a  million  of  the  "  best  minds  of  the  country," 
publishing  "  catechisms  "  and  books  In  which  the 
doctrine  of  aggression  and  war,  In  order  to  acquire 
dominion  and  to  impose  German  Ideals  upon  the 
world,  was  sedulously  preached.  It  was  supported 
by  numerous  other  Societies  working  In  special 
phases  of  the  far-reaching  policy,  while  It  had  as  a 
powerful  ally  the  Navy  League,  the  membership  of 
which  was  enormous,  and  the  preachment  of  which 
was  a  navy  large  enough  to  enforce  German  influ- 
ence In  successful,  and  ultimately  overwhelming, 
competition  with  English  naval  power.  The 
strength  and  popularity  of  all  these  societies  grew 
until  in  the  Moroccan  difficulty  in  191 1,  the  German 
representative  was,  with  sly  malice,  able  to  say  to 
the  French  and  British  diplomatists,  "  We  don't  want 
war,  but  public  opinion  in  Germany  Is  '  nervous,'  and 
may  easily  get  out  of  hand." 

The  spirit  which  made  the  colossal  preparations 
possible,  confident  and  voluntary,  had  been  stimu- 
lated by  such  men  as  Treltschke,  Nietzsche,  Clause- 
witz,  and  Von  der  Golz,  and  if  the  big  Germanic 
movement  Is  to  be  understood  all  of  them  must  be 
read  In  conjunction  with  the  Kaiser's  speeches  and 
the  Innumerable  books  published  on  war  In  Germany 
year  by  year. 

We  are  told  by  more  than  one  critic  at  this  mo- 
ment that  people  are  writing  about  Treltschke  and 


62  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Nietzsche  who  never  heard  of  them  before  the  war, 
and  cannot  even  spell  their  names  now.^  No  doubt 
this  is  true;  but  there  are  those  who  have  been  fa- 
mihar  with  the  essential  teachings  of  both  men  for 
years,  and  certainly  they  have  the  advantage  now 
of  good  English  translations.  These  allow  us  all 
to  get  a  grip  of  Treitschke's  philosophy  as  distinct 
from  his  history,  and  his  main  theme  in  that  philoso- 
phy, namely,  the  Doctrine  of  Valour  and  War. 
Long  before  this  war  broke  out  such  watchful  and 
German-wise  students  as  Dr.  J.  W.  Headlam,^  had 
drawn  the  attention  of  the  British  people  to  the  trend 
of  his  writings.  No  doubt  there  is  much  loose  talk 
about,  and  some  unfair  criticism  of,  Treitschke  and 
Nietzsche,  but  on  the  whole  they  are  not  being  mis- 
represented by  English  writers  to-day.  The  texts 
of  their  theories  are  household  words  throughout 
Germany,  and  we  have  heard  them  declaimed  suffi- 
ciently to  grasp  their  significance. 

Herr  Treitschke  was  the  historian  turned  rhap- 
sodist  and  militarist,  with  the  practical  Semitic  vision 
and  a  material  sense  which  could  translate  ideals 
into  good  coin  of  concrete  use.  He  and  the  myriad 
lesser  ones  laboured  effectively  in  his  day,  and  have 
laboured  since  industriously,  but  there  was  abroad 
In  Germany  a  still  more  subtle,  insidious,  and  per- 
verting influence  in  Nietzsche's  work.  It  has  fallen 
to  no  man  more  than  this  poet-philosopher  to  have 
the  spirit  of  his  teaching  universally  accepted,  while 
his  own  textual  philosophy  was  practically  unknown 
by  the  public.  His  was  the  full-blooded  philosophy, 
the  worship  of  Force.  He  rejected  the  doctrine  of 
the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number;  he  repu- 

1  Mr.  Sidney  Low  in  the  Quarterly  Rev'te'w  for  October,  1914. 

2  Dr.  J.  W.  Headlam  in  the  Historical  Review  for  October,  1897. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  NIETZSCHE        63 

diated  the  Christian  idea  of  justice,  as  "  slave-moral- 
ity," He  elevated  into  a  creed  the  doctrine  that 
"  Exploitation  belongs  to  the  nature  of  the  living 
being";  that  injury,  violation  and  destruction  were 
necessary  to  the  triumph  of  the  Superman,  who 
should  be  master  in  a  day  when  "  Men  shall  become 
finer  beasts  of  prey,  quicker,  cleverer,  and  more  hu- 
man." All  this,  swiftly  and  in  a  stealthy  flood,  since 
the  beginning  of  the  Bismarckian  era,  saturated  the 
soil  of  German  life  on  the  middle  and  higher  levels, 
and  eventually  drained  into  the  lowest  levels,  till 
hardness,  force  and  mastery  became  the  creed  of  all. 

It  is  not  unfair  to  take  from  Nietzsche's  works  cer- 
tain passages  detached  from  their  context  for  the 
purpose  of  showing  what  a  revolting  doctrine  he 
preached,  because  the  whole  spirit  of  these  passages 
pervades  everything  that  he  wrote.  It  was  his  am- 
bition to  eject  from  German  thought  the  idealism 
of  Kant  and  Fichte.  These  represented  the  power 
of  the  spirit  which  should  inspire  men  to  justice,  to 
the  betterment  of  their  own  race,  and  the  betterment 
of  the  world.  These  declared  for  law  and  the  gos- 
pel of  right  in  the  making  of  law,  under  which,  be- 
ing made,  all  men  should  have  in  the  organized  life 
of  the  community  and  in  unorganized  thought  and 
opinion  an  equality  of  justice.  Upon  this  ethical 
conception  the  old  idealists  of  Germany  founded 
their  philosophy;  and  by  it,  in  spite  of  all  the  ruth- 
lessncss  of  the  period  and  of  their  race,  Prussians  at 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  deeply 
affected  and  influenced. 

After  1870,  however,  the  ideas  of  the  new  moral 
revolutionist  began  to  allure  the  German  mind  with 
their  glowing  ideal  of  force  aggressive  and  trium- 
phant, of  sordid  luxury;  the  doctrine  of  Hercules  and 


64  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Sardanapalus.  Vague,  contradictory,  elusive,  more 
poetical  than  logical,  full  of  brilliance  and  light  and 
glamour,  but  with  much  "  interruption  of  the  cir- 
cuit "  of  reasoning,  Nietzsche  was  caviare  to  the 
general;  yet  certain  elementary  things  in  his  teach- 
ing stood  out  in  simple  and  attractive  clearness,  and 
his  popularity,  delayed  till  after  his  reason  had  left 
him,  but  not  till  after  his  death,  became  very  great. 
It  was  more  easily  attained  because  the  basis  of 
his  philosophy  was  obedience  to  Instinct.  With  the 
growing  materialism  of  Germany,  the  exhortation  to 
follow  boldly,  with  the  spirit  of  the  master  who 
would  make  slaves  for  his  service  and  rejoicing,  the 
primary  ardours  of  human  nature,  facilitated  the  ac- 
ceptance of  this  rubicund  and  exciting  policy  of  life, 
thought  and  conduct.  It  was,  in  brief,  the  Will  to 
Power,  which  in  common  language  means.  Follow 
your  instincts  in  seeking  what  you  want,  and  be 
strong  enough  to  get  It.  That,  if  followed,  meant 
the  rejection  of  the  German  culture  which  was  the 
product  of  the  German  philosophy  of  the  early  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  also  the  rejection  of 
Christian  morals  and  the  spirit  of  the  Beatitudes. 
Not  even  to-day,  a  generation  after  his  death.  Is 
Nietzsche's  philosophy  as  a  system  understood.  If, 
indeed,  there  was  any  real  system  at  all;  but  even 
as  the  Elegy  stands  for  all  the  poet  Gray  wrote,  so 
certain  definite  pronouncements  of  Nietzsche  stand 
for  what  he  thought  and  wrote.  He  hated  and  de- 
spised German  life  and  culture,  but  that  of  him 
which  his  fellow-countrymen  never  understood  was 
Incorporated  into  their  national  policy  and  ambitions, 
and  was  used  to  advance  the  nationalism  which  he 
repudiated.  Nietzsche  was  a  complete  cosmopoli- 
tan; but  the  weapons  that  his  philosophy  gave  to  his 
country  were  used  to  harden,  narrow,  intensify,  and 


NIETZSCHE  AND  KULTUR  65 

brutalize  the  spirit  of  his  country.  It  is  a  curious 
anomaly  that  the  man  who  has  most  influenced  the 
German  mind  by  his  pernicious  doctrine  of  Will  to 
Power,  rejects  completely  the  pompous  and  offen- 
sive claim  of  all  modern  Germany,  that  in  German 
Kultiir  is  to  be  found  the  salvation  of  the  world. 

With  this  effrontery  Nietzsche  has  no  sympathy. 
He  does  not  moderate  his  language  in  condemnation 
of  German  culture : 

"  The  greatest  error  at  present  is  the  belief  that  this  fortu- 
nate war  has  been  won  by  German  culture.  An  iron  mil- 
itary disciph'ne,  natural  courage  and  endurance,  the  superiority 
of  the  leaders,  the  unity  and  obedience  of  their  followers — ■ 
in  short,  factors  which  have  nothing  to  do  with  culture  helped 
to  obtain  the  victory. 

At  present  both  the  public  and  pri\ate  life  of  Germany 
shows  every  sign  of  the  utmost  want  of  culture;  the  modern 
German  lives  in  a  chaotic  muddle  of  all  styles,  and  is  still, 
as  ever,  lacking  in  original  productive  culture.  If,  in  spite 
of  this  well-known  fact,  the  utmost  satisfaction  prevails 
among  the  educated  classes,  it  is  due  to  the  influence  of  the 
Culture-Philistines." 

So  much  for  Culture.  Apart  from  this,  there  was 
to  be  no  sweetness  and  light  in  the  new  Nietzschian 
world  of  the  Superman ;  there  was  to  be  no  justice  or 
morality,  save  that  morality  which  each  man  would 
make  for  himself,  or  which  would  be  imposed  by 
the  Master  Man  on  those  whom  he  controlled. 

Let  us  see  what  Nietzsche,  the  spirit  of  whose  doc- 
trine is  the  watchword  of  the  German  militarists; 
whose  Zc*-athustra,  we  have  been  told  by  Haupt- 
mann,  is  in  the  knapsack  of  every  German  soldier 
with  Faust  and  the  Bible,  says  of  Christianity.  The 
extracts  are  given  seriatim  to  provide  at  least  some 
coherent  understanding  of  Nietzsche's  attitude  of 
mind: 


66  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

"  Christianity,  however,  represents  the  movement  that  runs 
counter  to  every  morality,  of  breeding  of  race;  it  is  anti- 
Aryan,  the  triumph  of  Caudela  values,  and  the  methods  hith- 
erto employed  for  making  mankind  moral  have  been  funda- 
mentally immoral." 

"  Christianity  has  waged  a  deadly  war  against  the  highest 
type  of  man," 

"  That  the  strong  races  of  Northern  Europe  have  not 
thrust  from  themselves  the  Christian  God,  is  in  truth  no 
honour  to  their  religious  talent,  not  to  speak  of  their  taste. 
They  ought  to  have  got  the  upper  hand  of  such  a  sickly  and 
decrepit  product  of  decadence  as  this  '  spirit,'  this  cobweb- 
spinner,  this  hybrid  image  of  ruin,  derived  from  nullity,  con- 
cept and  contradiction,  this  pitiable  God  of  Christian  '  mon- 
otono-theism,' 

"  His  great  invention,  his  expedient  for  priestly  tyranny, 
for  ruling  the  masses,  was  personal  immortality.  This  great 
falsehood  destroys  all  reason,  all  natural  instinct.  Christian- 
ity owes  its  triumph  to  this  pitiable  flattery  of  personal  vanity. 
In  plain  words,  '  Salvation  of  the  soul '  means  '  the  world 
revolves  around  me.'  The  poison  of  the  doctrine  of  '  equal 
rights  for  all  '  has  been  spread  abroad  by  Christianity  more 
than  by  anything  else. 

"With  this  I  conclude,  and  pronounce  my  sentence:  / 
condemn  Christianity.  To  me  it  is  the  greatest  of  all  imagin- 
able corruptions.  The  Church  is  the  great  parasite ;  with  its 
anaemic  idea  of  holiness,  it  drains  life  of  all  its  strength,  its 
love,  and  its  hope.  The  other  world  is  the  motive  for  the 
denial  of  every  reality.  I  call  Christianity  the  one  great 
curse,  the  one  great  intrinsic  depravity,  the  one  great  instinct 
of  revenge,  for  which  no  expedient  is  sufficiently  poisonous, 
secret,  underhand,  to  gain  its  ends.  I  call  it  the  one  im- 
mortal shame  and  blemish  upon  the  human  race." 

It  is  not,  therefore,  surprising  to  find  such  a  phi- 
losopher announcing  that  every  human  being  should 
devise  his  own  virtue,  should  draw  upon  his  own 
"  categorical  Imperative."  No  more  culture  of  the 
old  beneficent  kind;  no  more  Christianity  for  a  strug- 
gling world,   says  the  philosophical  reformer  who 


THE  KAISER'S  DEBT  TO  NIETZSCHE      67 

has  had  such  an  overwhelming  influence  upon  mod- 
ern Germany;  but  in  its  place  the  worship  of  Force, 
and  the  creed  that  all  men  should  exploit  other  hu- 
man beings,  the  stronger  destroying  the  weak.  The 
teaching  was  not  without  effect,  though  the  Kaiser 
could  only  subscribe  to  a  moiety  of  its  tenets;  though, 
according  to  Mr.  Sidney  Whitman,  the  one-time 
Chancellor,  Prince  Hohenlohe,  said  that  the  Kaiser 
was  the  "  coolest  rationalist  "  (meaning  an  agnostic) 
he  had  ever  met  in  his  life.  Apostle  of  the  new 
Kiiltur  of  savage  war  as  he  is  —  so  much  of  Nietz- 
sche is  Hohenzollern  —  he  keeps  to  "  the  faith  of 
his  fathers,"  interpreting  it  in  his  own  way,  but 
using  the  influence  of  the  Will-to-Power  philoso- 
pher to  harden  and  invigorate  a  people  who 
were  in  danger  of  losing  that  in  which  they  had 
ever  been  most  proficient,  the  quality  of  the  war- 
rior. 

Nietzsche  believed  that  war  was  not  only  neces- 
sary but  beneficial  —  or  as  others  of  his  creed  have 
called  it,  "  A  biological  necessity."  He  declares 
that,  "  We  must  learn  to  be  hard  and  forget  the  old 
valuation  of  altruism,"  and  his  Kaiser  sedulously 
encouraged  hardness  and  the  stony  mind.  He  had 
really  no  need  to  do  so.  Beneath  Prussian  civiliza- 
tion is  the  raw  appetite  for  blood  and  brutality,  for 
a  Scythian  cruelty  which  takes  no  heed  of  war's 
chivalry  and  humanity.  It  is  not  enough  that  the 
foe  shall  be  overcome.  He  must  learn  what  venge- 
ance is,  and  what  Hate  can  do;  and  this  war  has  not 
failed  to  show  how  Hate  can  be  both  pitiless  and  in- 
sane —  and  ridiculous. 

M.  A.  Miigge,  in  his  work  on  Nietzsche,  says  that 
the  philosopher's  clue  to  the  meaning  of  the  universe 
was  war;  and  he  quotes  thus  from  Zarathiislra,  the 
^-ade  meciim  of  the  Uhlan  and  his  tribe: 


68  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

"  Divinely  will  we  strive  against  each  other.  Rather 
would  I  perish  than  renounce  this  one  thing;  that  I  myself 
must  be  war  and  Becoming.  What  is  good  ?  To  be  brave 
is  good !  It  is  not  the  cause  that  hallo weth  war,  it  is  the  good 
war  that  halloweth  every  cause." 

Add  to  this  view,  approved  by  Treitschke,  Haupt- 
mann,  and  their  comrades  in  the  new  ethics,  Nietz- 
sche's doctrine  that  there  are  two  standards  of  mor- 
als, one  for  the  masters,  the  strong,  and  the  other 
for  the  slaves,  the  weak,  and  some  real  comprehen- 
sion may  be  had  of  the  spirit  animating  the  militarism 
of  Germany  to-day.  That  militarism  has  eagerly 
poured  Nietzsche's  Intoxicants  Into  every  throat 
which  did  not  still  adhere  to  the  moral  teetotalism  of 
Kant. 

If  the  following  paragraphs,  the  Ideas  of  which 
are  repeated  again  and  again  throughout  Nietzsche's 
work,  are  read  together,  there  is  no  chance  for  mis- 
understanding the  spirit  now  working  In  Germany 
at  war.  It  Is  faithfully  reflected  In  the  German  War 
Book,  lately  translated  with  pertinent  and  forceful 
comment  by  Professor  J.  H.  Morgan,  and  com- 
mented on  In  another  portion  of  this  volume : 

"  Out  of  you  a  chosen  people  shall  arise,  and  out  of  it  the 
Superman." 

"  The  refrain  of  my  practical  philosophy  is,  '  Who  is  to  be 
the  Master  of  the  World  '?  " 

**  What  a  deliverance  is  the  coming  of  an  absolute  master, 
a  Napoleon,  the  history  of  whose  influence  is  almost  the  his- 
tory of  the  superior  happiness  of  the  nineteenth  centurj^!  " 

"  The  coming  century  foreshadows  the  struggle  for  the 
sovereignty  of  the  world." 

"  The  time  for  petty  politics  is  past;  next  century  will  bring 
the  struggle  for  world-dominion  —  the  compulsion  to  great 
politics."  ^ 

3  Written  in  the  decade  in  which  the  Kaiser  came  to  the  throne. 


THE  OVERBEARING  LIFE  69 

"  There  are  many  signs  that  Europe  noiu  wishes  to  become 
one  nation.  All  the  profound  and  large-minded  men  of  this 
centur)'  —  e.g..  Napoleon,  Goethe,  Beethoven,  Stendhal, 
Heinrich  Heine,  Schopenhauer,  and  Wagner  —  have  had  this 
unique  aim.  A  boldly  daring,  splendidly  overbearing,  high- 
flying, and  aloft-upd ragging  class  of  higher  men,  destined  to 
teach  their  age  what  constitutes  High  Man!  " 

If  Nietzsche  were  the  only  man  who  advocated 
this  pernicious  doctrine,  now  being  translated  into 
practice  by  a  country  which  repudiates  every  known 
principle  of  International  law,  It  might  be  taken  with 
a  shrug  of  the  shoulder;  but  evidence  Is  only  too 
plentiful  that  his  Influence  has  been  felt  In  all  other 
departments  of  German  life.  Sudermann,  Fulda, 
Halby,  Hauptmann,  Von  Andrejanoff,  Georg  Con- 
rad, Kretzer,  and  many  others  have  sedulously  tritu- 
rated his  philosophy  through  fiction  and  the  drama, 
and  speakers  and  writers  In  every  direction  have 
praised  the  lusty,  the  overbearing  life.  Those  who 
desired  sanction  for  the  remorseless  doctrine  of  war 
for  conquest  as  preached  by  Treltschke,  found  It  In 
IS'Ietzsche,  to  whom  the  State  Is  sacred,  and  the  In- 
dividual only  a  child  of  the  State,  from  whom  obedi- 
ence Is  the  first  principle,  whose  existence  must  be 
absorbed  In  the  policy  of  the  State. 

Thus  Treltschke:  "  The  renunciation  of  Its  own 
power  Is,  for  the  State,  In  the  most  real  sense  a  sin 
against  the  Holy  Ghost,"  while  elsewhere  he  says 
many  times  that  It  Is  political  Idealism  which  de- 
mands wars,  while  it  Is  materialism  that  conde;nns 
them;  and  his  criticism  of  the  United  States,  Great 
Britain,  and  the  people  of  all  races  who  desire 
peace  and  honour  may  be  found  In  the  following 
words: 

"  It  has  alwajs  been  the  tired,  unintelligent  and  enervated 
party  that  lias  played  with  the  dream  of  perpetual  peace." 


70  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Nothing  that  has  been  here  quoted  from  Nietzsche 
and  Treltschke  is  out  of  harmony  with  the  strident, 
imperious,  dominating  temper,  eloquent  arrogance 
and  gifted  rhetoric  of  the  Emperor  WiUiam's  utter- 
ances. It  was  not  necessary  to  be  learned  to  follow 
the  main  Idea  of  Nietzsche's  philosophy  —  to  strive 
to  be  a  Superman,  to  follow  your  instincts,  to  get 
what  you  want  by  force.  And  not  alone  the  Em- 
peror, his  Junker  militarists,  historians  and  phi- 
losophers preached  the  open  and  brazen  doctrine 
of  conquest  for  the  promotion  of  selfish  interests. 
German  journalism  daily  fed  the  flame.  An 
editorial  in  the  Wall  Street  Journal  of  November 
19th,  1 9 14,  makes  the  following  quotation  from 
the  recent  writings  of  Maximilian  Harden,  the  most 
notorious,  if  not  the  most  prominent  publicist  In 
Germany,  and  one  of  the  erstwhile  critics  of  the 
Kaiser: 

"  Let  us  drop  our  miserable  attempts  to  excuse  German}''s 
action.  Not  against  our  will  and  as  a  nation  taken  by  sur- 
prise did  we  hurl  ourselves  into  this  gigantic  venture.  We 
willed  it,  we  had  to  will  it.  We  do  not  stand  before  the 
judgment  seat  of  Europe.  We  acknowledge  no  such  juris- 
diction. Our  might  shall  create  a  new  law  in  Europe.  It  is 
Germany  that  strikes.  When  she  has  conquered  new  domin- 
ions for  her  genius,  then  the  priesthood  of  all  gods  will  praise 
the  God  of  War. 

"  Germany  is  not  making  this  war  to  punish  sinners,  or  to 
free  oppressed  peoples,  and  then  to  rest  in  the  consciousness 
of  disinterested  magnanimity.  She  sets  out  from  the  immov- 
able conviction  that  her  achievements  entitle  her  to  demand 
more  elbow  room  on  the  earth  and  wider  outlets  for  her  ac- 
tivity." 

So  much  for  Germany's  purpose  In  making  war. 
As  to  the  results  of  the  war  this  fearless  Iconoclast 
says: 


HERR  DERNBURG  EXPLAINS  71 

"  We  will  remain  in  the  lowlands  of  Belgium,  to  which 
we  will  add  a  narrow  strip  of  coast  towards  Calais.  This 
will  close  the  war,  from  which  there  is  nothing  more  to  gain, 
after  having  vindicated  our  honour." 

Since  the  war  began,  since  Germany  was  checked 
on  her  way  to  the  reconquest  of  Paris,  and  it  became 
necessary  for  her  to  cultivate  the  good  opinion  of 
neutral  countries,  solicitous  and  inspired  adv-ocates 
for  the  German  cause,  repudiating  such  candid  pa- 
triots as  Maximilian  Harden,  indignantly  repel  the 
accusation  that  Germany  dreamed  of,  worked  for, 
planned  to  secure  world-control.  It  is  interesting, 
if  hardly  convincing,  to  observe  that  the  most  in- 
dignant counsel  for  Germany  in  this  manner  is  Herr 
Dernburg,  the  ex-Colonial  Minister  of  Germany, 
who  is  now  its  expert  Press  agent  in  America.  Re- 
pudiating Dr.  Eliot's  charge  that  Germany's  doc- 
trine was  Might  is  Right,  Herr  Dernburg  says: 

"  This  is  very  unjust.  Our  history  proves  that  we  have 
never  acted  on  this  principle.  We  have  never  got,  or  at- 
tempted to  get,  a  World-Empire,  such  as  England  has  won, 
and  all  of  which,  with  very  few  exceptions,  was  acquired  by 
the  might  of  war  and  conquest.  German  writers  who  have 
expounded  this  doctrine  have  only  shown  how  the  large 
World-Empires  of  England  and  France  are  welded  together, 
what  means  have  been  adopted  for  that  purpose,  and  against 
what  sort  of  political  doctrines  we  must  beware."  * 

Pages  might  be  filled  with  refutation  of  the  mis- 
statements which  Herr  Dernburg  has  so  ingeniously 
crowded  into  these  few  lines.  It  shows  some  hardi- 
hood to  say  that  Germany  has  never  dreamed  of 
world-conquest  in  face  of  Bernhardi's  assertion,  al- 
ready quoted,  that  what  Germany  now  wishes  to  at- 
tain must  be  fought  for,  and  won,  against  a  superior 

*Ne'w  York  Times,  October  5th,  1914. 


72  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

force  of  hostile  interests  and  Powers;  against  the 
statements  made  by  Professor  Delbriick,  a  much 
greater  authority  than  Herr  Dernburg,  quoted  in 
another  chapter.  In  such  statements  Herr  Dern- 
burg Is  even  flouting  his  former  chief,  Prince  Biilow, 
who  has  told  us  candidly,  In  his  book  Imperial  Ger- 
many, that  the  reason  why  Germany  did  not  seize  the 
apparently  favourable  opportunity  of  the  Boer  War 
to  attack  England  was  that  her  naval  power  was  not 
yet  sufficiently  developed. 

The  real  importance  of  Herr  Dernburg's  state- 
ment lies,  however,  In  his  repudiation  of  the  doctrine 
that  Might  is  Right.  In  repudiating  It  he  repudi- 
ates all  those  men  of  repute  who  have  been  forming 
German  opinions  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 
and  more.  Force,  strength,  and  "  Will  to  Power  " 
is  for  them  the  sacred  sanction  of  policy.  They  de- 
ride Arbitration  as  an  alternative  to  war,  not  only 
on  the  practical  ground  that  arbitration  treaties  must 
be  peculiarly  detrimental  to  an  aspiring  people, 
which  has  not  reached  its  political  and  national 
zenith,  and  is  bent  on  expanding  its  power,  but  on 
the  scientific  ground  that  arbitration  audaciously  as- 
sumes that  the  weak  nation  is  to  have  the  same  right 
to  live  as  the  powerful  and  vigorous  nation.  "  The 
whole  idea,"  insists  the  German  prophet  on  world- 
war,  whose  prophecies  have  been  fulfilled,  "  repre- 
sents a  presumptuous  encroachment  on  the  natural 
laws  of  development  which  can  only  lead  to  the  most 
disastrous   consequences   for  humanity  generally."  ^ 

But  even  the  leaders  of  this  school  of  thought 
seem  to  feel  that  the  brutal  doctrine  of  Might  must 
have  some  moral  justification,  and  they  produce 
a  moral  justification  which  to  most  people  will  ap- 

s  Bernhardi,  Germany  and  the  Next  War,  p.  ^4. 


BETHMANN-HOLLWEG  CONFESSES        73 

pear  to  plunge  it  into  deeper  immorality.  The  per- 
sonal morality  of  the  individual,  says  Treitschke 
for  instance,  rests  on  the  question  whether  he 
has  recognised  and  developed  his  own  nature  to 
the  highest  attainable  degree  of  perfection.  If  the 
same  standard  is  applied  to  the  State,  then  "  its 
highest  moral  duty  is  to  increase  its  power."  The 
individual  must  sacrifice  himself  to  the  State;  and  as 
there  can  be  nothing  higher  than  the  State,  the  Chris- 
tian duty  of  self-sacrifice  does  not  exist  for  the  State. 
In  continuation  of  this  thesis  we  are  told  that  a  sac- 
rifice made  to  an  alien  nation  not  only  is  immoral, 
but  contradicts  the  idea  of  self-preservation,  which 
is  the  highest  ideal  of  the  State.*^ 

According  to  the  teachers  of  modern  Germany, 
therefore,  the  moral  justification  of  the  doctrine  that 
Might  is  Right  rests  on  the  question  whether  the 
State  has  increased  its  power  to  the  highest  voltage. 
It  must  be  left  to  official  apologists,  such  as  Herr 
Dernburg,  to  square  the  Germanic  view  with  the 
morality  of  less  "  cultured  "  nations.  In  the  at- 
tempts to  do  so,  and  to  clear  their  nation  of  holding 
to  the  pernicious  doctrine,  they  will  have  to  explain 
away  the  notorious  speech  of  their  own  Chancellor 
to  the  Reichstag  on  August  4th,  19 14,  on  the  invasion 
of  Belgium : 

"  Gentlemen,  we  are  in  a  state  of  necessity,  and  necessity 
knows  no  law.  Our  troops  have  invaded  Luxemburg  and 
perhaps  are  already  on  Belf:;ian  soil.  That  is  contrary  to 
the  dictates  of  international  law.  It  is  true  that  the  French 
Government  has  declared  that  France  is  willinjT  to  respect 
the  neutrality  of  Belgium  as  long  as  her  opponent  respects  it. 
France  could  wait,  but  we  could  not  wait.  IVe  ivere  com- 
pelled to  disregard  the  just  protests  of  the  Luxemburg  and 

«  Treitschke  Politik,  I.  §  3,  and  II.  §  28. 


74  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Belgian  Governments.  The  wrong  —  I  speak  openly  —  that 
we  are  committing,  we  will  endeavour  to  make  good  as  soon 
as  our  military  goal  has  been  reached.  Anybody  who  is 
threatened  as  we  are  threatened  can  only  have  one  thought, 
how  he  is  to  hack  his  way  through."  ^ 

If  anything  can  add  to  the  cynical  brutality  of  the 
policy  thus  announced,  It  Is  the  sentence  In  which  the 
German  Chancellor  talks  of  compensation.  To  him 
the  whole  thing  Is  purely  material,  to  be  atoned  for 
by  cash  payment.  Money,  the  cash  nexus,  Is  to  make 
good  devastated  fields  and  ruined  homes,  violated 
women  and  mutilated  children,  the  horrors  of  Aer- 
schot,  DInant,  and  the  crimes  of  Termonde,  Lou- 
valn,  Senlls,  Vise,  and  the  rest.  There  Is  no  promise 
of  making  good  the  contempt  of  treaties,  the  shat- 
tering of  the  faith  of  nations.  Dr.  von  Bethmann- 
Hollweg  cares  nothing  for  that.  Feebleness  Is  the 
political  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  Treltschke 
said;  therefore,  In  being  ruthless,  Germany  is  serving 
the  Lord.  Weak  nations  constitute  a  presumptuous 
encroachment  on  natural  laws  of  development; 
therefore  In  crushing  them  Germany  Is  the  Instru- 
ment of  science,  sanctified  by  the  necessity  which 
knows  no  law.  So  In  Paradise  Lost  Satan  excused 
his  violation  of  man's  primal  virtue : 

'  So,  in  words  not  infrequently  quoted,  did  Nikias,  the  Athenian 
Admiral,  bid  Melos  abandon  her  neutrality  during  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  War.  "  We  do  not  pretend,"  he  said,  "  that  we  have 
any  right  of  empire  over  you,  nor  that  you  have  done  us  any 
wrong.  You,  in  turn,  need  not  try  to  influence  us  by  saying  that 
you  have  not  joined  with  our  enemy  Sparta  in  this  war;  for  you 
know  as  well  as  we  do  that  right  is  only  for  those  who  are  equals 
in  power;  the  strong  do  what  they  can,  and  the  weak  suffer  what 
they  must." 

Later  in  the  interview  Nikias  uses  words  singularly  like  those  of 
the  Chancellor.  "Besides  extending  our  Empire,  we  shall  gain  in 
security  by  your  subjection.  The  fact  that  you  are  weaker  than 
others  renders  it  all  the  more  important  that  you  should  not  succeed 
in  baffling  the  masters  of  the  sea." 


THE  TYRANT'S  PLEA  75 

And  should  I  at  your  harmless  innocence 

Melt  as  I  do,  yet  public  reason  just, 

Honour  and  Empire  with  revenge  enlarged, 

By  conquering  this  new  world,  compel  me  now 

To  do  what  else,  though  damn'd,  I  should  abhor.' 

So  spake  the  Fiend,  and  with  necessity. 

The  Tyrant's  plea,  excused  his  devilish  deeds." 

The  erudite  and  powerful  writer  In  the  Quarterly 
Review  of  January,  1871,  already  quoted,  in  his 
striking  article  speaks  as  though  he  were  living  and 
reasoning  on  the  events  of  to-day.  The  article  Is 
In  every  word  harmonious  to  this  moment.  That  Is 
so  because  the  criticism  of  German  character  and 
policy  which  he  made  then  Is  accurately  applicable  to 
German  character  and  policy  to-day.  Reviewing  the 
Franco-Germ.an  War  and  looking  Into  the  future  of 
Europe,  he  says: 

"  For  the  essential  weakness  of  the  '  executive  principle  ' 
in  the  law  of  nations  is  now  aggravated  by  the  predominance 
of  Germany,  under  the  leadership  of  Prussia.  According  to 
the  political  principles  which  have  governed  that  State  since 
the  time  of  Frederick  H,  treaties  seem  to  be  only  memoranda 
of  the  terms  of  armistice,  which  need  be  no  longer  observed 
when  one  of  the  contracting  parties  deems  it  advantageous  to 
disregard  them.  ...  It  may  be  argued  but  too  truly  that  the 
prospect  of  obtaining  the  general  assent  of  nations  to  a  limita- 
tion of  the  right  of  superior  force  is  not  encouraging,  seeing 
that  the  conduct  of  the  late  war  by  the  victorious  party  can 
only  be  justified  by  the  assumption  that  power  of  execution  is 
the  main  clement  of  right.  For,  if  might  is  right,  it  follows 
that  any  limitation  of  the  exercise  of  superior  force  is  a  limita- 
tion of  right,  and  those  who  make  that  their  law  of  interna- 
tional relations  should  consistently  scorn  any  discussion  of  all 
limitations  as  much  as  they  scorn  interference  between  them- 
selves and  their  fallen  foe." 

If  you  visit  the  Museum  of  Boulak,  at  Cairo,  you 
will  sec  there  SctI  In  the  mummied  flesh,  In  appear- 


76  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

ance  almost  as  when  he  wore  the  Uraeus  Crown 
and  sat  on  the  throne  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt 
three  thousand  years  ago;  and  coming  out  from 
that  house  of  the  dead  Past  Into  the  light  and  life  of 
to-day  you  will  find  that  the  past  Is  not,  In  one  sense, 
dead  at  all.  In  the  bazaars  of  Cairo,  among  the 
fellaheen  tilling  their  little  farms,  working  the  sak- 
klahs  along  the  great  river,  you  will  still  see  Setl  in 
form,  face  and  figure,  with  all  the  thousand-year- 
old  physical  characteristics.  Wave  after  wave  of 
conquest  has  rolled  over  the  Egyptian,  apparently 
engulfing  and  obliterating  him;  but  always  he  has 
emerged,  always  he  has  thrown  back  again  In  face, 
features,  physique  to  the  ancient  type,  and  Is  still,  In 
the  day  of  Sultan  Kamel,  cast  In  the  mould  of  Amen- 
hotep. 

So,  too,  with  the  German.  Soil,  climate,  some 
stout  and  hidden  germ  of  vigour,  have  given  to  him, 
as  to  a  few  other  races  like  the  Jews,  a  persistency  of 
type  which  has  survived  the  vicissitudes  of  twenty 
centuries.  Physically  and  —  for  the  world  more  Im- 
portant —  morally,  the  German  of  to-day  Is  the  same 
as  the  German  who  strove  and  conquered  In  the 
Teutoberger  forest  In  the  dawn  of  our  era.  He  Is 
still  In  most  essentials  a  primitive  man.  It  cannot 
be  doubted  that  Nietzsche  had  this  in  mind  when  he 
described  the  ruling  Influence  of  the  Inbred  overlords 
in  Germany  to-day: 

"  These  men  are,  in  reference  to  what  is  outside  their  circle 
(where  the  foreign  element,  a  foreign  country,  begins),  not 
much  better  than  beasts  of  prey.  .  .  .  They  feel  that  in  the  wil- 
derness they  can  revert  to  the  beast  of  prey  conscience;  like  ju- 
bilant monsters  who  perhaps  come  with  bravado  from  a 
ghastly  bout  to  murder,  arson,  rape  and  torture.  ...  It  is  im- 
possible not  to  recognize  at  the  core  of  all  these  races  the  mag- 
nificent blonde  brute  avidly  rampant  for  spoil  and  victory." 


"THE  MAGNIFICENT  BLONDE  BRUTE"      77 

To  these  splendid  animals,  propagated  and  culti- 
vated with  studious  care,  guided  by  rules  above  the 
mawkish  "  good  and  evil  morality  "  which  for  cen- 
turies has  degraded  and  depraved  mankind,  shall  fall 
the  governance  of  the  world.  It  has  been  said  by 
the  German  apologists  of  the  Herr  Dernburg  type, 
that  neither  Treitschke,  Nietzsche,  nor  Bernhardi 
represents  the  mind  of  the  German  people;  but  their 
fellow-workers  in  the  field  of  German  ambitions  and 
German  Kultur  are  too  many  to  permit  of  that  de- 
fence. The  policy  for  which  they  stand  has  its  thou- 
sand votaries.  "  War  is  a  biological  necessity  "  goes 
echoing  through  every  school-house,  college-hall,  fac- 
tory, office,  and  Church  in  the  German  Empire.  Mr. 
C.  R.  L.  Fletcher,  in  one  of  the  Oxford  pamphlets, 
quotes  the  following  blast  of  war  philosophy  from 
the  Pan-Germ anische  Blatter  for  September,  19 14. 
Its  author  is  Herr  K.  F.  Wolff,  and  its  matter  is  not 
incongruous  with  the  author's  name: 

"  There  are  two  kinds  of  races,  master  races  and  inferior 
races.  Political  rights  belong  to  the  master  race  alone,  and 
can  only  be  won  by  war.  This  is  a  scientific  law,  a  law  of 
biology.  ...  It  is  unjust  that  a  rapidly  increasing  master  race 
should  be  struggling  for  room  behind  its  own  frontier,  while 
a  declining  inferior  race  can  stretch  its  limbs  at  ease  on  the 
other  side  of  that  frontier." 

As  has  been  noted,  there  have  been  vicissitudes  in 
the  history  of  Germany  which  threatened  this  primi- 
tive type  with  extinction.  But  they  differ  from  those 
cataclysms  which  caused  extinction  of  type  in  other 
nationahtics;  speaking  paradoxically,  they  have  been 
cataclysms  of  peace,  not  of  war.  It  is  curious  and 
significant  how  the  political  position  of  Germany  has 
coloured  the  whole  thought  and  literature  of  her  peo- 
ple.    The  literature,  music,   and  philosophy  which 


78  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

have  made  her  admired  are  In  the  main  fruits  of 
what  the  disciples  of  Treitschke  call  the  period  of 
her  deepest  degradation.  The  literature  and  phi- 
losophy of  her  later  splendour  are  different  in  tone ; 
most  notably  in  this,  that  the  material  usurps  the 
place  of  the  Ideal. 

In  studying  German  contemporary  history  It  would 
seem  as  though  the  character  of  German  thought 
varied  in  direct  ratio  with  the  rise  or  fall  of  Prussian 
influence.  When  the  Separatism  born  of  political 
inefliclency  prevailed,  the  softer  idealism  of  South- 
ern Germany  found  a  freedom  which  became  Im- 
possible with  a  Germany  unified  under  Prussia,  the 
representative  of  the  primitive  German  type.  Un- 
der the  Iron  rule  of  the  Prussian  superman  intellect- 
ual Idealism  exists  with  difficulty;  in  Prussia's  new 
philosophy  thought  and  expression  have  a  positive 
and  palpably  material  and  sordid  aim.  There  Is  no 
place  for  the  beneficent  abstractions  of  Kant;  phi- 
losophy must  needs  concern  Itself  with  historic  the- 
ories, transmuted  presently  Into  political  ethics. 
Thus,  we  have  German  savants,  like  Hauptmann, 
Ehrlich,  Sudermann,  Haeckel,  Bode,  Liszt,  Rontgen 
and  Harnack,  Issuing  a  proclamation  defending  the 
violation  of  Belgium  and  the  destruction  of  Louvain, 
and  informing  the  world  that,  "  Without  German 
militarism  German  culture  would  long  ago  have  been 
obliterated."  Even  theology  Is  pressed  Into  the 
service,  to  sketch  a  new  creed  which  It  shall  be  Ger- 
many's high  mission  to  Impose  upon  the  world. 

It  is  In  German  eyes  one  of  the  proofs  of  Britain's 
unworthiness  for  Empire  that  she  has  failed  to  pro- 
vide India  with  a  satisfying  religion.  Christianity 
being  rejected,  it  was  Britain's  duty  to  have  formu- 
lated a  new  creed.  Germany  will  fall  Into  no  such 
error;  she  has  been  preparing  to  make  the  great  ex- 


ODIN  OR  JAHVE  79 

periment;  Nietzsche,  Lotze,  and  Hartmann  have 
been  developing  German  tliought  to  that  end.  "  The 
gloomy  spell  of  Judea  and  Galilee  "  is  to  be  broken; 
Nietzsche,  as  we  have  seen,  clears  away  the  "  accu- 
mulated rubbish  "  of  the  centuries.  There  is  to  be 
new  metaphysics,  a  new  ethic,  even  a  new  God,  an 
eclectic  compound  of  the  deities  of  a  dozen  creeds. 
The  new  Gospel  is  to  be  written;  there  are  to  be  the 
new  Beatitudes  of  Nietzsche,  as  follows: 

"  Ye  have  heard  how  in  old  times  it  was  said,  '  Blessed  are 
the  meek,  for  they  shall  inherit  the  earth,'  but  I  say  unto  you, 
Blessed  are  the  valiant,  for  they  shall  make  the  earth  their 
throne.  And  ye  have  heard  men  say,  Blessed  are  the  poor  in 
spirit,  but  I  say  to  you,  Blessed  are  the  great  in  soul  and  free 
in  spirit,  for  they  shall  enter  Valhalla.  And  ye  have  heard 
men  say,  Blessed  are  the  peacemakers,  but  I  say  unto  you, 
Blessed  are  the  war-makers,  for  they  shall  be  called,  if  not  the 
children  of  Jahve,  the  children  of  Odin,  who  is  greater  than 
Jahve." 

Why  not  the  children  of  Moloch?  There  are 
many  apostles  of  his  creed  among  the  historic  and 
liighly-reputed  soldiers  of  Germany.  Defending 
Napoleon's  notorious  —  and  infamous  —  orders  for 
the  slaughter  of  the  Turks  captured  at  Jaffa,  the  late 
Count  Yorck  von  Wartenburg,  Colonel  of  the  Prus- 
sian General  Staff,  found  that  though  in  the  eyes  of 
the  mere  didactic  historical  writers  this  deed  may 
appear  horrible  and  revolting,  "  Practical  military 
history  need  not  consider  it  as  such.  ...  If  such  an 
act  is  necessary  for  the  safety  of  one's  army,  it  is  not 
only  justified,  but  its  repetiliun  in  any  future  war  will 
be  advisable."  ^ 

In  his  book.  The  Nation  in  Arms,  Field-Marshal 
von  der  Goltz,  lately  Military  Governor  of  unhappy 

*  The  italics  are  the  author's. 


8o  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

and  glorious  Belgium,  assents  to  the  same  thought 
and  counsel; 

"  Inexorability  and  seemingly  hideous  callousness  are 
among  the  attributes  necessary  to  him  who  would  achieve 
great  things  in  war.  In  the  case  of  the  general  there  is  only 
one  crime  for  which  history  never  pardons  him,  and  that  is 
defeat." 

Major-General  Disfurth  brings  his  country's  doc- 
trine up  to  date  in  an  article  in  the  Hamburger  Nach- 
richten  of  November,  19 14,  justifying  German 
methods  in  the  present  war.  Here  are  some  of  his 
truculent  words : 

"  Frankly,  we  are  and  must  be  barbarians,  if  by  this  we 
understand  those  who  wage  war  relentlessly  and  to  the  utter- 
most degree.  .  .  .  Every  act  of  whatever  nature  committed 
by  our  troops  for  the  purpose  of  discouraging,  defeating  and 
destroying  our  enemies  is  a  brave  act  and  a  good  deed,  and  is 
fully  justified.  .  .  .  War  is  war,  and  must  be  waged  with  se- 
verity. The  commonest,  ugliest  stone  placed  to  mark  the 
burial  place  of  a  German  Grenadier  is  a  more  glorious  and 
venerable  monument  than  all  the  cathedrals  in  Europe  put 
together.  .  .  .  They  call  us  barbarians.  What  of  it?  .  .  . 
For  my  part  I  hope  that  in  this  war  we  have  merited  the 
title  of  barbarians.  .  .  .  Our  troops  must  achieve  victory. 
What  else  matters?  " 

Pre-eminent  in  the  exposition  of  the  dark  creed  Is 
the  German  War  Lord  himself.  The  others  are  but 
acolytes.  He  disdains  even  the  poor  plea  of  neces- 
sity, he  orders  wholesale  sacrifice  on  the  altar  even 
before  the  service  begins.  The  words  in  which  he 
sent  his  troops  to  China,  In  1900,  have  been  quoted 
in  an  earlier  chapter,  and  need  not  be  repeated  here. 

The  new  religion,  then.  Is  founded  on  Force.  To 
the  German,  as  to  Mohammed,  "  War  Is  not  only 
heroism,   it  is  the   Divine  act."     To  the  Prussian 


THE  SANCTITY  OF  WAR  8i 

mind  the  Pacifists  are  not  only  futile  faddists,  they 
are  enemies  of  human  progress.  When,  at  the  last 
Hague  Conference,  the  Kaiser  was  spoken  of  as  a 
Pacifist,  his  representatives  there  and  the  German 
Press  promptly  and  strenuously  repudiated  the  sug- 
gestion. It  was  a  war  conference  in  the  eyes  of  Ger- 
many, and  no  such  accusation  should  pass  unchal- 
lenged. 

To-day  the  sanctity  of  war  Is  not  only  asserted  by 
the  soldier  in  the  camp,  it  Is  taught  by  every  pro- 
fessor in  the  class-rooms  of  Germany. 

In  the  view  of  Herr  Kuno  Fischer  — 

**  Wars  are  terrible  but  necessary,  for  they  save  the  State 
from  social  petrifaction  and  stagnation.  It  is  well  that  the 
transitoriness  of  the  world's  goods  is  not  only  preached,  but 
is  learned  by  existence.     War  alone  teaches  this  lesson."  " 

To  Treltschke,  war  Is  the  Influence  which  evokes 
all  that  is  noblest  in  humanity.  He  cries  out  against 
the  perversion  of  morality  which  wishes  to  abolish 
the  heroism  of  war  among  men,  and  says  oracularly 
and  callously: 

"  God  will  see  to  It  that  war  aiways  recurs  as  a  drastic 
medicine  for  the  human  race."  ^° 

And  so  the  later  exponent  of  his  gospel,  transla- 
ting it  into  terms  of  politics,  assures  us  in  all  the 
emphasis  of  italics  that,  ''  The  maintenance  of  peace 
never  can  or  may  be  the  goal  of  a  policy  J' 

Briefly  stated,  the  German  idea  is  this:  Strength 
is  virtue,  and  weakness  is  vice;  whence  it  naturally 
follows  that  the  oppression  of  weakness  by  strength 
Is  an  act  of  merit.  The  most  powerful  State  is, 
therefore,  the  most  moral;  whence  it  follows  that 

"  Kuno  Fischer,  Hegel,  I,  p.  737. 
"Treltschke,  Politik,  I,  p.  76. 


82  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

the  standards  of  Right  and  Wrong  are  to  be  set  by 
the  most  powerful  State.  In  plain  words,  those  very 
rules  which  have  been  constructed  for  the  protection 
of  weakness  are  to  become  the  selfish  and  immoral 
instruments  of  mere  strength.  Following  this,  with 
perfect  logic,  the  new  national  morality  lays  it  down 
that  engagements  and  treaties  are  not  to  be  observed 
if  they  are  immoral,  that  is,  if  they  limit  the  momen- 
tary interests  of  a  new  State ;  as  thus : 

"  Yorck's  decision  to  conclude  the  convention  of  Taurog- 
gen  was  indisputably  a  violation  of  right,  but  it  was  a  moral 
act,  for  the  Franco-Prussian  alliance  was  made  under  compul- 
sion, and  was  antagonistic  to  all  the  vital  interests  of  the  Prus- 
sian State ;  it  was  essentially  untrue  and  immoral.  Now  it  is 
always  justifiable  to  terminate  an  immoral  situation."  ^^ 

Illuminated  by  this  philosophy,  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium  was  clearly  immoral,  because  it  was  incon- 
venient to  Germany  strategy.  The  violation  of  Bel- 
gium was,  therefore,  a  moral  act,  and,  viewed  from 
that  angle,  Dr.  von  Bethmann-Hollweg's  confession 
of  wrong  was  the  purest  tongue-in-the-cheek  hypoc- 
risy. Indeed,  a  German  professor  of  universal  his- 
tory ^^  not  only  defends  the  invasion  of  Belgium  on 
the  ground  of  military  necessity,  but  extols  it  as  a 
heroic  decision. 

The  remarkable  and  prophetic  article  in  the  Quar- 
terly Review  for  1871,  already  quoted,  has  some- 
thing to  say  on  the  doctrine  of  Might  is  Right  which 
is  as  searching  as  anything  written  at  this  moment, 
when  all  that  the  writer  prophesied  in  1871  has  come 
true;  when  the  campaign  of  aggression  and  conquest, 
following  upon  the  German  successes  against  Den- 
mark, Austria,  and  France,  has  done  its  work: 

11  Bernhardi's  Germany  and  the  Next  War,  p.  49. 

12  Prof.  Oncken.     Suddeutsche  Monatshefte,  Sept.  14,  1914. 


THE  DESTROYER  OF  PEACE  83 

"  So  long  as  there  are  countries,  great  and  strong,  where 
political  power  is  held  by  a  sovereign  who  may  wield  all  the 
national  resources  for  the  gratification  of  his  ambition  or  his 
personal  ideas  —  be  they  avowedly  selfish  or  gilded  over  with 
the  pretext  of  a  noble  aim  —  wars  will  not  cease.  Much  less 
can  there  be  any  hope  of  lasting  peace  so  long  as  there  is  in 
the  very  heart  of  Europe  a  nation  whose  jurists  and  statesmen, 
professors  and  political  writers,  join  with  one  voice  in  pro- 
claiming, as  a  fundamental  principle  of  public  law,  that  a 
right,  however  well  assured,  ceases  to  be  a  right  so  soon  as  its 
possessor  is  unable  to  enforce  its  observance;  a  nation  which, 
having  persuaded  itself  that  it  is  the  most  advanced  in  civiliza- 
tion, is  ready  for  any  sacrifice  to  obtain  the  supremacy  which 
it  deems  its  due.  What  hope  of  peace  is  left  when  such  views 
are  cherished  by  a  people  at  once  the  most  numerous  and  the 
most  homogeneous  in  f^urope?  When,  by  a  course  of  prepa- 
ration, skilfully  contrived  and  carried  out  through  a  long 
series  of  years,  this  nation  is  ready,  at  the  shortest  notice,  to 
rise  up  in  a  compact  mass,  with  arms  and  equipments  all  com- 
plete, .  .  .  what  can  the  German  Empire  do  henceforth? 
Such  a  nation  is  nothing  less  than  an  enormous  standing  army 
on  furlough,  waiting  to  give  practical  effect  to  its  lofty  claims, 
and  to  reap  the  greatest  possible  advantage  from  every  oppor- 
tunity. The  people  which  combines  such  political  principles 
and  aspirations  with  such  an  organization  is  not  likely  to 
shrink  from  war,  but  to  seek  it:  nor,  when  successful,  zvill  it 
accept  the  arbitration  of  neutrals,  sai'e  in  the  way  in  ivhich 
the  Germans  accepted  it  at  the  London  Conference  of  1864, 
namely,  on  the  express  condition  of  not  being  bound  by  the 
award/' 

In  the  German  view,  Power,  being  the  sole  meas- 
ure of  merit  and  the  supreme  standard  of  Right, 
may  assert  itself  as  convenience  and  advantage  dic- 
tate, and  may  —  indeed,  should  —  assert  itself  with 
disregard  of  suffering.  The  ideal  statesman  must, 
if  necessary,  defy  the  verdict  of  his  contemporaries; 
he  must  have  a  clear  conception  of  the  nature  and 
purpose  of  the  State;  he  must  pursue  his  course,  neg- 


84  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

lectful  of  the  individual  and  of  all  interests  save 
those  of  the  State,  which  Is  composed  of  Olympians 
whose  gospel  is  force.  In  plain  language  he  must 
not  care  for  public  opinion,  he  must  settle  what  the 
State  requires  to  fulfil  its  policy,  whatever  it  may 
be,  and  then  see  that  it  gets  what  it  wants.  Being 
quite  clear  and  determined  as  to  this,  and  systematiz- 
ing policy  and  organizing  means  on  this  basis,  when 
the  hour  for  combat  strikes  he  can  rise  with  a  free 
spirit  and  a  serene  mind  to  the  inflexible  mood  of 
Luther,  here  interpreted: 

"  Briefly  in  the  business  of  war,  men  must  not  regard  the 
massacres,  the  burnings,  the  battles  and  the  marches,  etc. — 
that  is  what  the  petty  and  simple  do  who  only  look  with  the 
eyes  of  children  at  the  surgeon,  how  he  cuts  off  the  hand  or 
saws  off  the  leg,  but  do  not  see  that  he  does  it  in  order  to  save 
the  whole  body.  Thus  we  must  look  at  the  business  of  war 
or  the  sword  with  the  eyes  of  men,  asking.  Why  these  mur- 
ders and  horrors?  It  will  be  shown  that  it  is  a  business 
divine  in  itself,  and  as  needful  and  necessary  to  the  world  as 
eating  or  drinking  or  any  other  work."  ^^ 

Therefore  the  ideal  statesman  in  his  actions  hon- 
ours with  unenviable  imitation  the  essential  charac- 
teristics of  Nietzsche's  ideal  ruler,  the  Caesar  that 
knows  no  law  save  Necessity  and  Ambition. 

There  are  doubtless  many  Germans  —  it  would  be 
unpardonable  to  libel  a  whole  nation  —  who  do  not 
subscribe  in  private  to  this  theory  of  national  poli- 
tics; indeed,  it  is  certain  that  if  stated  in  set  terms 
it  would  be  abhorrent  to  a  large  section  of  German 
thought,  and  there  are  some  German  writers  daring 
enough  to  deprecate  it.  Their  opinions,  however, 
do  not  count.  Their  dissent  is,  in  fact,  regarded  as 
a  phase  of  the  innate  and  ruinous  Separatist  spirit 

i^Bernhardi's  Germany  and  the  Next  JVar,  p.  54. 


GERMAN  VIEW  OF  THE  STATE  85 

of  the  German  race,  which  it  is  the  mission  of  Prus- 
sianism  to  suppress,  even  by  the  sword,  as  the  Kaiser 
has  said.  The  doctrines  of  the  extremists  in  phi- 
losophy and  the  theories  of  the  militarists  have  never, 
however,  been  badly  put  to  the  German  people. 
As  was  shown  earlier  in  this  chapter  the  spirit  of  the 
doctrines  and  the  theories  were  crystallized  into  catch- 
words and  formulae,  and  gave  a  definite  temper  of 
conquest,  of  national  self-consciousness  which  be- 
came a  thirst  for  more  recognition,  more  power. 

Not  the  least  of  the  causes  which  has  hastened  on 
this  war  is  the  divorce  between  the  German  people 
and  the  German  State.  To  Nietzsche,  to  Treit- 
schke,  to  Bernhardi,  to  Reventlow,  to  Von  der  Goltz, 
above  all  to  the  Kaiser,  the  State  is  a  separate  or- 
ganized entit}^  as  one  might  say  a  human  absolutism, 
a  ruling  class  of  armed  oracles,  placed  outside  and 
above  the  people.  Treitschke,  in  one  of  his  lectures 
delivered  at  Berlin  University,^^  says  of  the  State: 

"  It  is  not  the  totality  of  the  people,  as  Hegel  assumed  in 
his  deification  of  the  State  —  the  people  is  not  altogether 
amalgamated  with  it.  .  .  .  On  principle  it  does  not  ask  how 
the  people  is  disposed ;  it  demands  ohedience;  its  laws  must  be 
kept  whether  willingly  or  unwillingly." 

Americans,  Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  accustomed 
to  regard  themselves  as  the  State  and  the  State  as 
composed  of  themselves,  must  find  it  difficult  to  re- 
alize the  conception  of  a  dual  organism  such  as  that 
of  Germany  —  a  people  trading,  toiling,  living  un- 
der and  dying  for  a  mysterious  thing,  composite  of 
men  but  acting  like  a  machine ;  whose  word  is  the  only 
law,  which,  looking  upon  itself  as  a  divine  instrument, 
is  "  indifferent  to  the  point  of  view  of  the  present 

^*Politik,  Book  I,  Section  I. 


86  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

day,"  and  sits  "  on  the  hills  like  gods  together  care- 
less of  mankind." 

Yet  that  conception  must  be  grasped,  if  we  would 
understand  the  true  meaning  of  the  theory  that  the 
morality  of  the  State  need  not  coincide  with  the 
morality  of  the  Individuals  who  compose  it.  Once 
grasped,  however,  the  understanding  of  the  new 
doctrine  is  not  difficult.  It  is,  after  all,  the  old  prim- 
itive doctrine  that  Might  is  Right,  draped  in  the  ; 
tawdry  garments  of  an  idealized  materialism.  Baldly 
stated,  it  is  this :  First  determine  what  you  want  to  : 
get,  make  sure  that  you  are  strong  enough  to  get  it,  i 
and  then  persuade  yourself  that  you  have  a  mission.  ; 
Create  spacious  and  glittering  ideals  to  cover  your  | 
lust  for  power;  invent  the  doctrine  that  power  is  ! 
morality;  and  then  set  forth,  under  banner  of  ruth- 
less war,  to  plant  your  ideals,  irrespective  of  human  \ 
law  or  human  sufferings,  in  proportion  to  your  j 
strength  and  in  accord  with  your  opportunity.  Jus-  ;< 
tice  and  justification  must  then  infallibly  be  on  your  J 
side;  for  by  the  canons  of  the  creed  you  have  de- 
vised, the  sole  tests  of  right  and  wrong  are  Advan- 
tage, Power  and  Opportunity. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   PLACE   IN  THE   SUN 

When  the  Kaiser  was  crowned  the  circumstances  of 
the  time  were  propitious  to  the  development  of  his 
well-known  aspirations  for  the  advancement  of  Ger- 
many, The  prodigious  strides  which  his  country- 
had  made  in  commerce  and  industry  in  the  twenty 
years  following  on  the  founding  of  the  Empire  lured 
ardent  ambition,  Intoxicated  with  unaccustomed 
wealth,  to  greater  exploits;  the  easy  triumphs  of 
1864,  1866  and  1870  had  created,  not  only  in  Ger- 
many but  in  Europe,  a  belief  In  the  invincible  char- 
acter of  German  arms.  Yet  there  was  already,  in 
1890,  at  Berlin  a  hovering  consciousness  that  Ger- 
man unity  was  not  yet  fully  accomplished,  that  for 
its  attainment  another  great  foreign  adventure  was 
necessary.  There  was  something  more  than  a  sus- 
picion among  the  political  cognoscenti,  there  was  an 
actual  fear  that  prosperity  had  not  been  an  unmixed 
blessing;  that  it  had  brought  in  its  train  some  soften- 
ing of  character  which  must  be  cured.  Wealth  was 
exalting  the  middle  classes;  they  were  beginning  to 
press  upon  the  "  high-born."  In  other  States  this 
gradual  fusion  of  class  distinction  might  have  been 
welcomed  as  a  step  towards  national  unity;  to  Prus- 
sian Junkerdom  it  appeared  a  dangerous  subversion 
of  its  social  theories  and  a  menace  to  military  great- 
ness and  power. 

To  such  a  ruler  and  amid  such  surroundings  the 
patience  and  prudence  of  Bismarck  were  hardly  toler- 
able.    There  was  already  a  school  of  thought  which 

87 


88  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

repudiated  the  advice  of  the  old  Empire-builder 
against  unprovoked  war  and  extra-European  expan- 
sion; and  the  Emperor  was  one  of  its  disciples. 
Within  three  years  after  ascending  the  throne  he 
dropped  the  pilot  and  entered  on  the  path,  the  end 
of  which  is  now  almost  in  view. 

If  the  Emperor  was  moved  to  dismiss  Prince  Bis- 
marck by  ambition,  the  act  of  dismissal  hurried  him 
along  the  fatal  path  with  increased  momentum. 
Prince  Bulow  has  lifted  the  veil  of  the  Nineties  with 
remarkable  frankness: 

**  In  view  of  the  anxious  and  discouraged  state  of  feeling 
that  obtained  in  Germany  during  the  ten  years  following 
Prince  Bismarck's  retirement,  it  was  only  possible  to  rouse 
public  opinion  by  harping  on  the  string  of  nationalism,  and 
waking  the  people  to  consciousness.  A  great  oppression  which 
weighed  upon  the  spirit  of  the  nation  had  been  occasioned  by 
the  rupture  between  the  wearer  of  the  Imperial  Crown  and 
the  mighty  man  who  had  brought  it  up  from  the  depths  of 
Kyffhauser.  This  oppression  could  be  lifted  if  the  German 
Emperor  could  set  before  his  people,  who  at  that  time  were 
not  united  either  by  common  hopes  or  demands,  a  new  goal 
towards  which  to  strive ;  could  indicate  to  them  '  a  place  in 
the  sun  '  to  which  they  had  a  right,  and  to  which  they  must 
try  to  attain.  On  the  other  hand,  patriotic  feeling  must  not 
be  roused  to  such  an  extent  as  to  damage  irreparably  our  rela- 
tions with  England,  against  whom  our  sea-power  would  for 
years  be  insufficient,  and  at  whose  mercy  we  lay  in  1897,  as  a 
competent  judge  remarked  at  the  time,  like  so  much  butter 
before  the  knife."  ^ 

Was  ever  so  naive  a  political  confession  made  to 
the  world  before?  With  a  candour  only  equalled 
by  his  boldness  the  ex-Chancellor  of  Germany  ex- 
poses the  hidden  springs  of  Prussian  policy  on  the 
very  eve  of  the  explosion  which  that  policy  was  sure 

1  Imperial  Germany,  p.  23. 


IMPERIAL  GROWTH  89 

to  cause.  It  defies  analysis,  because  it  is  itself  a 
masterly  analysis  of  the  German  position  —  a  dis- 
united nation  anxious  and  discouraged  by  the  over- 
throw of  the  old  policy;  a  monarch  compelled  to 
allay  discontent  and  promote  harmony  by  pointing 
his  people  to  distant  places  in  the  sun;  to  be  gained 
by  the  creation  of  a  sentiment,  the  full  extent  and 
purpose  of  which  must  for  a  while  be  studiously  con- 
cealed. 

The  new  policy  aimed  at  nothing  less  than  a  polit- 
ical and  ethical  reconstruction  of  the  world,  an  object 
which  now  seems  in  the  fair  way  of  accomplishment, 
if  not  precisely  in  consonance  with  the  aims  of  its 
authors.  There  were  three  stages  in  the  new  pol- 
icy, each  connoting  war  —  the  Prussianization  of 
Germany  under  the  political  ideas  of  the  Hohenzol- 
lerns;  the  Prussianization  of  Europe  under  the  hege- 
mony of  Prussianized  Germany;  the  Prussianization 
of  the  world  under  the  canons  of  Treltschke,  Nietz- 
sche, and  Junkerdom.  The  great  idea  Is  thus  set 
forth: 

"  We  have  fought  in  our  last  great  wars  for  our  national 
union  and  our  position  among  the  Powers  of  Europe;  we  must 
now  decide  whether  we  wish  to  develop  into  and  maintain  a 
World-Empire,  and  procure  for  German  spirit  and  German 
ideas  that  fit  recognition  which  has  been  hitherto  withheld 
from  them."  ^ 

But  Germany  was  not  to  be  purely  selfish  In  these 
vast  ambitions.  Their  realization  was  a  duty  not 
only  to  herself,  but  to  the  whole  world.  Were  she 
to  fail,  the  future  of  German  nationality  would  be 
sacrificed:  an  Independent  German  civilization  would 
not  exist;  and  the  blessings  for  which  German  blood 
has  Howcd  In  streams  —  spiritual  and  moral  liberty, 

2  Bernhardi's  Germany  and  the  Next  War,  p.  104. 


90  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

and  the  profound  and  healing  aspirations  of  German 
thought  —  would  for  long  ages  be  lost  to  mankind! 
That  was  the  view  of  the  Mahdis  of  Germany 
and  their  political  and  military  dervishes.  It  was, 
of  course,  hoped  that  each  of  these  stages  could  be 
reached  separately.  The  Prussianization  of  Ger- 
many, the  creation  of  national  unity,  being  impossible 
as  a  result  of  internal  political  capacity,  could  be 
achieved  only  by  war.  The  first  ideal  war  for  that 
purpose  would  be  another  conquest  of  France,  as 
being  at  once  the  easiest  and  the  most  certain  way  of 
threatening,  weakening,  and,  in  time,  overcoming 
the  hostile  power  of  Great  Britain,  and  of  consoli- 
dating Germany's  political  position. 

"  In  one  way  or  another  we  must  square  our  account  with 
France  [the  italics  are  his]  if  we  wish  for  a  free  hand  in  our 
international  poh'cy.  This  is  the  first  and  foremost  con- 
dition of  a  sound  German  policy,  and  .  .  .  the  matter  must 
be  settled  by  force  of  arms.  France  must  be  so  completely 
crushed  that  she  can  never  again  come  across  our  path."  ^ 

Though  this  was  only  the  saying  of  one  man,  it 
was  repeated  in  a  thousand  forms  in  the  works  of 
authors,  professors,  statesmen  and  teachers;  in  the 
Press,  the  pulpit,  and  the  beer-garden.  This  was  the 
preachment:  "France  out  of  the  way,  then  Eng- 
land. England  is  our  foe.  She  has  more  of  the 
earth's  surface  than  we  have,  more  of  the  world's 
trade  than  she,  or  any  nation  except  Germany,  ought 
to  have.  She  even  robbed  us  of  one-half  of  New 
Guinea,  though  we  tried  for  the  whole;  and  we 
should  have  had  it,  but  that  her  insolent  cub  Aus- 
tralia intervened.  We  must  have  what  we  never 
have  had,  and  what  England  has  had  for  hundreds 
of  years  —  an  Empire.     She  will  not  give  it  to  us, 

3  Bernhardi's  Germany  and  the  Next  War,  p.  105. 


THE  SUBJECTION  OF  EUROPE  91 

so  we  must  take  it.  We  must  await  '  The  Day ' ; 
and  with  it  will  come  our  war  of  conquest,  renewing 
the  glories  of  the  times  when  we  made  Silesia,  Po- 
land, Hanover,  Schleswig-Holstein,  and  Alsace-Lor- 
raine our  own.  Ours  is  the  cry  of  the  old  Crusaders, 
Dahinf" 

Such  d  victorious  war,  it  might  be  assumed,  would 
complete  the  unification  of  Germany,  and  secure  that 
solid  German  confederation  from  the  North  Sea  to 
the  Adriatic,  which  bounded  Prince  Bismarck's  as- 
pirations. The  next  step  would  follow  naturally. 
Germany's  allies  would  be  strengthened,  as  in  Bos- 
nia and  Herzegovina;  Turkey  would  be  supported 
and  encouraged;  while  in  a  game  of  double-dealing, 
Bulgaria  would,  at  the  same  time,  be  incited  and 
encouraged  to  attack  Turkey,  weakening  her  while  yet 
Germany  held  her  hand  and  crushed  her  and  robbed 
her;  and  the  conviction  would  be  instilled  into  Ger- 
many's weaker  neighbours  that  their  independence 
and  interests  were  bound  up  with  Germany,  and 
could  only  be  secured  under  the  protection  of  Ger- 
man arms.  From  this  conviction  might  eventually 
come  an  enlargement  of  the  Triple  Alliance  into  a 
Central  European  Federation,  controlled  at  first  by 
Germany  and  then  ruled  by  her  and  "  God,  and  our 
German  sword,"  as  the  Kaiser  has  so  modestly  de- 
clared. Switzerland,  where  German  gold  and  Ger- 
man influence  has  been  doing  service  to  this  end  for 
many  a  day;  Belgium,  which  has  been  ruled  commer- 
cially from  Berlin;  Holland,  Bulgaria  and  Roumania, 
where  German  Princes  rule  and  German  influences 
have  been  supreme;  Servia,  in  spite  of  herself;  Den- 
mark, and  ultimately  Greece,  should  become  obedient 
vassals  to  the  Hohcnzollcrn. 

With  France  crushed,  with  Holland  and  Belgium 
absorbed,  with  a  Prussianized  State  extending  from 


92  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

the  Baltic  to  the  Mediterranean  and  from  the  Eng- 
lish Channel  to  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  Germany  would 
be  prepared  for  the  last  great  adventure.  The 
Slavs  would  be  pushed  back  on  the  East  and  the  old 
Germanic  provinces  recovered.  Great  Britain  would 
disappear,  as,  indeed,  would  be  a  fitting  end  for  the 
bastard  offspring  of  chance  and  duplicity,  a  thing 
which  was  wholly  a  "  monstrous  sham,"  for  which 
there  could  be  no  room  in  a  world  governed  by 
valour  and  "  swank  ";  by  the  Will  to  Power.  Eng- 
land would  have  to  disgorge  those  possessions  ob- 
tained by  blundering  chance  or  by  infamous  theft. 

For  years  Germans  have  called  England  the  rob- 
ber-State, have  charged  her  with  building  up  her 
Empire  by  disregarding  the  rights  of  other  nations, 
with  seizing  the  unoccupied  lands  of  the  earth 
through  and  by  the  policy  of  "  navalism."  They  ap- 
pear to  have  forgotten  the  loathsome  policy  of  Fred- 
,erick  the  Great,  who  suggested  the  infamous  crime 
of  the  first  partition  of  Poland  —  a  cancer  in  the  side 
of  Europe  ever  since;  how  in  the  twenty-three  years' 
war,  beginning  in  1792,  Prussia  sold  herself  out  of 
it  for  increased  territory  east  of  the  Lower  Rhine; 
how,  when  the  nations  of  Europe  begged  her  to  join 
them  to  destroy  the  power  of  Napoleon,  who  aimed 
at  world-empire,  and  nearly  achieved  it,  she  agreed 
to  join  them,  but  again  sold  her  neutrality  to  the 
Corsican  for  the  kingdom  of  Hanover;  how  she 
got  Schleswig-Holstein  by  an  indefensible  invasion 
based  on  a  bamboozling  pretext  of  disputed  succes- 
sion to  the  Duchy  put  forward  by  the  German  Con- 
federation; how  she  tricked  France  into  a  war  by 
manipulating  a  telegram,  by  which  she  acquired  Al- 
sace-Lorraine. The  very  kingdom  of  Prussia  itself 
was  got  by  the  underhand  acts  of  two  electors  of 
Brandenburg,  in  1525  and  1618. 


HOW  PRUSSIA  ATTAINED  HEGEMONY    93 

Even  more  important  in  one  sense  than  all  these 
was  the  attack  made  upon  Austria  in  1866  without 
a  declaration  of  war  in  a  period  of  European  peace, 
when  Austria  declined  to  agree  to  the  repudiation  of 
the  Duk ;  of  Augustenburg  as  the  rightful  heir  to  the 
Duchies  of  Schleswig  and  Holstein,  after  going  to 
war  to  support  his  fictitious  claims,  and  to  divide  the 
Duchies  between  them.  Austria  demanded  the  deci- 
sion of  the  Confederation  of  the  German  States, 
which  pronounced  Prussia  as  having  grossly  trans- 
gressed against  the  Public  Law  of  Germany.  This 
was  what  Bismarck  had  planned,  and  it  worked. 
Out  of  Sadowa  came  the  complete  annexation  of 
Schleswig-Holstein,  the  mediatization  of  Hanover, 
the  annexation  of  Hesse-Cassel,  Nassau,  and  Frank- 
furt, with  the  power  of  Austria  made  impotent. 
Out  of  it  came  also  the  open  road  to  Paris,  and  the 
new  German  Empire  and  its  Hohenzollern  Emperor. 
A  Hohenzollern  had  been  offered  the  Imperial 
Crown  of  a  new  German  Empire  after  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1848,  but  had  declined  it,  because  Prussia 
did  not  want  union  only:  her  object  was  control  of 
all  the  German  States,  and  to  accomplish  that,  suc- 
cessful wars,  adding  to  Prussian  prestige,  were  neces- 
sary. The  prestige  came  in  the  triumphant  wars 
with  Denmark,  Austria,  and  France.  Then  the 
Prussian  became  dominant  by  the  glory  of  his  arms, 
and  assumed  the  Imperial  Crown.  Bavaria,  Wiir- 
temberg,  Saxony,  accepted  their  inferior  position, 
for  during  three  generations  they  had  slowly  been 
divested  of  their  ancient  confidence  and  their  sure 
pride.  Saxony's  subservience  began  in  that  dark 
day  when  Frederick  the  Great  did  with  neutral  Sax- 
ony what  William  II  has  done  with  Belgium.  He 
was  preparing  to  fight  other  enemies,  and  Saxony 
lay  in  his  path.     He  struck  her  down  without  offence 


94  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

on  her  part,  and  afterwards  cold-bloodedly  said  that 
he  did  it  because  she  was  not  ready  for  war,  and  it 
was  to  his  advantage  to  bring  her  low. 

Even  the  United  States  of  America  was  not  to 
escape  the  German  readjustment  of  the  territorial 
balances  of  the  world.  The  isolated  groups  of  Ger- 
mans abroad, — 

"  Greatly  benefit  German  trade,  since  by  preference  they 
obtain  their  goods  from  Germany ;  but  they  may  also  be  use- 
ful to  Germany  politically,  as  has  been  found  in  America, 
where  the  American-Germans  have  formed  a  political  alliance 
with  the  Irish,  and  thus  united,  constitute  a  power  in  the 
State,  with  which  the  Government  must  reckon."  * 

After  all  this,  It  seems  almost  superfluous  to  be 
told  that  the  Portuguese  colonies  would  be  acquired 
whenever  some  political  or  financial  crash  would  give 
an  opportunity,  and  that  Bolivia  and  Brazil  would 
one  day  be  absorbed. 

But  what  was  to  happen  to  the  Empire  thus  gar- 
nered from  its  present  possessors,  the  execrated 
Britons?  They,  since  Heaven  let  them  remain  a 
part  of  the  earth,  were  to  be  civilized.  These 
"  stolen,"  far-flung,  and  benighted  lands  were  not 
merely  to  be  exploited,  as  at  present,  for  a  base  com- 
mercialism. The  German  conception  was  infinitely 
higher  than  that.  They  were  to  be  Prussianized. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  civilization.  It  was  impera- 
tive to  preserve  the  German  spirit,  and  by  so  doing 
to  establish  foci  of  universal  Kiiltur.  If  the  pan- 
Germanic  purpose  was  to  be  attained.  It  would  be 
necessary  to  Prussianize  the  whole  world,  both  po- 
litically and  ethically. 

That,  in  substance,  was  the  creed  contained  In  Ger- 

*  Bernhardi's  Germany  and  the  Next  War,  p.  78. 


A  PRUSSIAN  WORLD  95 

man  books,  newspapers,  pamphlets,  and  the  scripts 
of  lectures  without  number.  The  doctrine  that 
other  nations  must  be  ransacked,  robbed,  and  ruined 
because  :he  German  people  lack  creative  political 
genius  is,  however,  held  to  be  wanting  in  authority. 
Even  if  German  expansion  were  justified  by  the  con- 
tention that  supreme  political  genius  is  vested  in 
Germany,  and  that  therefore,  in  her  JVeltpolilik  she 
is  but  the  implement  of  the  evolutionary  doctrine  of 
the  survival  of  the  fittest,  German  pretensions  would 
still  fail  to  commend  themselves  to  the  victims  in 
possession.  They  might  even  be  so  decadent  as  to 
prefer  and  fight  for  their  own  inferior  methods  of 
government,  as  they  have  done ;  and  they  would  cer- 
tainly rebel  openly  against  the  unscientific  theory  that 
those  most  incapable  of  governing  themselves  should 
become  the  universal  governors.  These  unregener- 
ates  would  ask  how,  if  German  political  capacity  could 
not  preserve,  by  so-called  democratic  but  actually 
autocratic  means,  a  European  Empire  from  demoral- 
ization, it  could  hope  to  aspire  to  maintain  a  united 
World  Empire  inhabited  by  a  real  democracy.  The 
clear,  hard  Teutonic  logic  could  provide  only  one 
answer  to  that  interrogation  —  the  Teutonic  World- 
Empire  might  only  be  maintained  by  the  elimination 
of  non-Teutonic  ideals. 

So  long  as  there  remained  a  single  powerful  State, 
or  a  number  of  States,  unprepared  to  sacrifice  their 
own  position  and  power  for  the  maintenance  of  Ger- 
man unity,  and  unready  to  abandon  their  old  political 
moral  ideas  for  the  Kiiltiir  of  the  Teuton,  so  long 
would  there  be  danger  of  German  disruption.  The 
old  fatal  story  of  the  Popes  and  the  Hohenstaufcn 
might  be  repeated  in  that  twentieth  century  which 
Ciermany  has  claimed  for  her  own.  Indeed,  as  the 
German  professorial  warrior,  whose  name  is  now  so 


96  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

notorious,  tells  us,  the  execution  of  these  schemes 
would  clash  with  many  old-fashioned  notions  and 
vested  rights.  In  the  first  place  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  disregard  the  principle  of  the  balance  of 
power  in  Europe,  following  in  this  the  doctrine  of 
Treltschke,  that,  "  Such  a  system  cannot  be  supported 
with  an  approximate  equilibrium  among  the  nations." 
But  the  great  Teutonic  world-scheme  involved 
more  than  this: 

"  We  must  put  aside  all  such  notions  of  equilibrium.  .  .  . 
It  is  not  now  a  question  of  a  European  State  system,  but  of 
our  embracing  all  the  States  of  the  world,  in  which  the 
equilibrium  is  established  on  real  factors  of  power.  We 
must  endeavour  to  obtain  in  this  system  our  merited  position 
at  the  head  of  a  federation  of  European  States."  ^ 

Treltschke  asked  for  a  Germany  as  one  nation 
under  a  Hohenzollern;  his  buoyant  disciple  foresees 
a  world  purified  by  Potsdam  and  organized  by  the 
Balaams  of  Berlin.  The  last  sentence  of  extract 
verifies  the  statement  made  on  a  preceding  page, 
that  the  smaller  States  of  Europe  should  become  sat- 
ellites of  Germany.  In  William  II,  the  apostles  of 
the  new  Idea  found  the  very  man  for  their  purpose, 
the  autocrat  and  the  fanatical  worshipper  of  his 
House  and  Its  history.  The  ruler  who  had  threat- 
ened the  extermination  by  violence  of  political  free- 
dom of  thought  In  his  own  countrymen  would  not 
shrink  from  Inculcating  principles  by  fire  and  sword 
on  alien  races.  The  Kaiser  is  indeed  the  Mo- 
hammed of  the  modern  world,  imbued  with  the  spirit 
of  the  destroyers  of  the  Alexandrian  Library,  whose 
belief  was  that  all  it  contained,  "  Is  either  in  the 
Koran  or  is  unworthy  of  attention."  Have  we  not 
already  been  consoled  for  the  ruined  architecture  of 

^Bernhardi's  Germany  and  the  Next  War,  p.  no. 


THE  NEW  MOHAMMED  97 

Louvain  ar.d  Rheims,  and  Lille,  by  the  assurance 
that  German  Kultiir  can,  with  a  Potsdam  mason,  re- 
build finer  temples  than  those  it  has  destroyed? 

So  far  as  the  comparison  between  the  aims  of  Mo- 
hammed and  the  Kaiser  is  inexact,  the  moral  advan- 
tage lies  with  the  Arab,  in  that  Germany  has  invented 
her  creed  to  sanctify  her  aggression.  Without  some 
moral  sanction  the  materialism  of  German  ambitions 
would  be  too  naked,  her  policy  too  shameless. 

Colonial  expansion  has  been  for  many  years 
preached  to  the  German  people  from  two  texts,  the 
one  commercial  and  the  other  imperial.  They,  and 
the  world  generally,  are  exhorted  to  observe  the  vast 
industrial  development  of  Germany,  and  are  told 
that  her  growing  wealth  and  teeming  population 
must  have  outlets,  must  be  given  space  for  expan- 
sion. The  "  open  door  "  does  not  satisfy  the  Ger- 
man demand  for  markets  and  settling  grounds. 
"  We  are,"  they  say,  "  absolutely  dependent  on  for- 
eign nations  for  the  import  of  raw  materials,  and  to 
a  considerable  extent  also  for  the  sale  of  our  own 
manufactures.  .  .  .  Then,  again,  we  have  not  the 
assured  markets  which  England  possesses  in  her  Col- 
onies." 

It  must  be  admitted  that  Germany  has  been  frank 
in  regard  to  the  necessity  for  colonial  expansion,  and 
equally  frank  as  to  the  means  by  which  that  expan- 
sion might  be  secured.  Treitschke  and  Bernhardi 
have  been  greatly  quoted,  but  there  is  a  man  of 
greater  eminence  than  Bernhardi,  and  of  saner  judg- 
ment than  Treitschke,  who  has  written  with  great 
authority  upon  this  business.  It  is  Professor  Del- 
briick.  As  far  back  as  1898  Professor  Dclbriick, 
who  succeeded  Treitschke  as  editor  of  the  Prciis- 
sicher  Jahrbuch,  in  an  article  in  that  publication, 
said : 


98  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

"  If,  however,  the  world  outside  Europe  were  divided  up 
between  one  or  two  nations,  as,  for  instance,  English  and 
Russian,  it  would  be  impossible  that  those  European  races 
which  had  no  share  in  this  should  be  able  permanently  to 
maintain  themselves  against  these  gigantic  Powers.  That 
is  the  reason  why  Germany  must  necessarily  pursue  a 
Colonial  policy  on  a  great  scale.  Germany  must  attempt  to 
make  up  that  which  it  has  unfortunately  delayed  to  do  during 
the  last  centuries.  It  must  create  large  districts  outside 
Europe  in  which  German  nationality,  German  speech  and 
German  intellectual  life  have  the  possibility  of  future  devel- 
opment." 

That  Bismarck  was  not  a  friend  of  this  ambitious 
programme  of  colonial  expansion  the  Herr  Profes- 
sor admits: 

"  It  is  true  that  Prince  Bismarck  would  not  hear  anything 
of  this  policy ;  he  saw  the  future  conflicts  into  which  it  would 
lead  us.  All  the  greater  is  the  merit  of  the  present  Govern- 
ment. A  great  nation  must  have  great  aims  before  it.  .  .  . 
But  the  Government  would  in  no  way  have  been  the  true 
inheritor  of  the  Bismarck  spirit  which  could  not  trust  itself 
to  go  beyond  that  which  he  had  said  and  done.  By  progress 
alone  can  power  be  maintained." 

How  was  this  colonial  expansion  to  be  achieved? 
Either  by  absorbing  territory  not  yet  annexed  by 
other  nations,  or  by  taking  from  other  nations  what 
they  already  possessed.  The  former  scheme  was 
carried  out  in  the  absorption  of  territory  in  West 
Africa,  in  Southwest  Africa  and  in  East  Africa; 
not  very  valuable,  not  very  capable  of  giving  large 
markets  for  German  goods  or  for  securing  many 
purchases  for  German  goods,  but  making  a  start. 
It  was  a  slow  business.  As  for  the  other  branch  of 
the  policy,  it  could  be  accomplished  in  two  ways: 
first  by  securing  commercial  domination  in  territories 


COLONIAL  EXPANSION  99 

belonging  to  other  nations,  which  would  ultimately 
lead  to  political  domination;  and  this  In  turn  would 
ultimately  lead  to  sovereignty.  There  was  South 
America.  It  was  held  by  a  series  of  weak  govern- 
ments; it  gave  every  promise  of  proving  a  fertile  field 
for  German  expansion.  But  that  adventure  proved 
a  failure  also.  The  Venezuela  difficulty  emerged 
bristling  with  the  bayonets  of  the  Monroe  doctrine. 
The  United  States  would  have  none  of  it.  Germany 
had  already  entered,  however,  into  spheres  of  Brit- 
ish and  American  Influence  in  New  Guinea  and  in 
Samoa,  and  there  she  s-ucceeded.  In  Samoa,  from 
commercial  she  advanced  to  political  domination, 
and  finally  to  sovereignty.  Being  turned  away  from 
South  America,  and  sure  but  slow  development  in 
Africa,  the  Kaiser's  eyes  became  firmly  fixed  upon 
the  British  Empire,  and  it  was  resolved  that  In  good 
time  when  the  Naval  Bill  of  1900  had  brought  forth 
its  fruits,  that  Great  Britain  should  be  relieved  of 
a  share  of  her  White  Man's  Burden. 

But  as  France,  in  1900,  had  not  been  won  to  desert 
Russia,-  and  the  Triple  Entente  was  an  immovable 
feast  of  friendship  for  defence,  she  must  be  stripped 
of  her  colonial  possessions  and  gathered  Into  the 
German  garner  before  the  British  harvest  was 
reaped.  Professor  Delbriick's  ambitions  were  in 
keeping  with  the  spirit  of  his  Imperial  Master,  and 
were  fully  sustained  by  those  subsequent  events  which 
have  culminated  In  this  war,  for  he  says: 

"  It  is  quite  unnecessary  to  explain  that  this  conception  of 
the  duties  of  our  foreign  policy  requires  the  highest  develop- 
ment of  our  rnilitary  and  naval  poiuer  which  can  possibly  be 
attained.  The  increase  in  our  prosperity  permits  us  to  direct 
our  gaze  on  the  very  greatest,  and  the  future  of  the  nation 
imperatively  demands  that  there  should  be  no  parsimony,  and 
that  we  should  shrink  from  no  sacrifices." 


100        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

It  does  not  seem  unwarrantable  to  ask  what  was 
the  need  of  a  vast  naval  and  military  force  for  co- 
lonial expansion  if  the  colonial  expansion  was  to  be 
peaceful?  Here  is  the  true  gospel  according  to 
Herr  Delbriick: 

"  There  is  no  higher  task  to  put  before  the  coming  genera- 
tion than  to  see  that  the  world  is  not  divided  between  English 
and  Russians.  .  .  .  Without  war  if  it  is  possible,  but  it  is 
something  which  would  not  be  bought  too  dear  by  the  expense 
of  ever  so  much  blood." 

This  is  a  gospel  of  licence,  loot,  and  land-lust,  lack- 
ing in  none  of  the  elements  which  have  been  exhibited 
by  Germany  in  the  present  terrific  conflict  forced 
upon  the  world  by  her.  One  of  Berlin's  renowned 
apostles  speaks  of  the  "  return  of  the  days  of  the 
Hanseatic  League,"  and  calls  attention  to  the  fact 
that  Germany  once  possessed  a  great  oversea  trade 
and  that  she  lost  it.  If  she  failed  to  found  a  Colo- 
nial Empire,  if  she  was  outstripped  by  Holland, 
Spain,  and  England,  she  has  herself  to  blame.  She 
had  in  her  grasp  an  Empire  which  gave  her  harbours 
in  every  European  sea,  but  it  slipped  from  her  fingers 
for  lack  of  ability  to  retain  it. 

The  naked  policy,  then,  is  this,  that  Germany 
should  redress  the  wrong  done  her  by  Nature  in  deny- 
ing her  the  highest  political  capacity,  by  ravaging 
other  nations  to  deprive  them  of  their  possessions  — 
first  France,  then  England,  and  after  that  the  still 
wider  swathe.  We  must  go  back  into  history  to  find 
so  naked,  so  rapacious  and  so  cynical  a  doctrine. 
Colonies  have  often  changed  hands  as  the  result  of 
wars,  but  the  cases  are  few  where  their  possession 
was  the  cause  or  the  justification  of  wars.  The  Brit- 
ish navy  itself  had  its  real  birth  in  the  defensive 
measures  against  the  Spanish  Invasion;  and  that  it 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  FLEET  loi 

has  created  a  World-Empire  is  almost  an  accidental 
result,  due  largely  to  England's  natural  position  as  an 
island;  to  the  amazing  enterprise  and  spirit  of  ad- 
venture -in  her  people;  to  her  limited  field  of  raw 
materials;  and  to  her  industrial  and  economic  policy 
which  compelled  her  to  seek  both  raw  material  and 
food  overseas. 

Despite  the  overtures  made  to  France  by  Germany 
at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  it  has  always  been 
intolerable  to  the  German  militarists  and  political 
philosophers  that  the  Empire,  stricken  to  the  dust  by 
Germany  in  1870,  should  still  be  a  Great  Power, 
owing  largely,  in  German  eyes,  to  the  possession  of 
colonies  in  Africa  and  Indo-China.  Yet  what  had 
Germany  been  doing  over  these  hundreds  of  years? 
The  present  German  Empire  is  new  —  garishly  new, 
but  Germany  is  old,  and  is  not  without  a  long  list  of 
sins  of  omission  and  commission,  as  the  history  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  the  Seven  Years'  War,  the 
Twenty  Years'  War,  and  many  another  shows. 

All  that  is  not  our  affair,  nor,  indeed,  need  the 
proposition  have  been  seriously  discussed  except  to 
show  how  the  Teutonic  mind  has  been  tuned  to  ac- 
company the  aggressive  designs  of  the  Kaiser  and  the 
group  by  which  he  is  and  has  been  surrounded.  You 
must,  said  this  camarilla  to  the  German  taxpayer, 
continue  to  increase  your  fleet  so  that  you  may  find 
new  openings  for  your  trade  and  new  German  homes 
for  your  children  overseas.  You  must  found  a  Co- 
lonial Empire,  not  alone  for  these  comparatively  sor- 
did reasons  but  for  the  honour  of  your  race.  See 
how  decadent  freebooting  England  dominates  the 
Seven  Seas;  observe  how  the  tricolour  which  you 
trampled  underfoot  less  than  half  a  century  ago 
waves  over  fertile  dominions.  Even  Holland  pos- 
sesses finer  colonies  than   Germany.     Side  by  side 


102        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

with  your  navy  you  must  maintain  a  vast  army,  for 
it  is  only  by  destroying  the  political  equilibrium  of 
Europe  that  you  can  hope  to  make  of  your  navy  a 
weapon  to  overturn  the  political  equilibrium  of  the 
world.  You  are  strong  and  brave;  you  excel  in  all 
that  goes  to  the  making  of  Empires  except  in  your 
capacity  to  hold  what  you  have  won;  therefore,  make 
sacrifices  now,  that  you  may  be  able  to  destroy  all 
the  forces  which  might  put  your  political  incapacity 
to  the  test. 

So  the  German  Empire  began  to  put  this  creed 
into  practice  on  the  ist  of  August,  19 14:  having  first 
employed  myriad  spies  in  every  European  country, 
and  in  England  and  France  in  particular,  for  years; 
having  lured  Turkey  into  tutelage;  having  used  Bul- 
garia for  her  purposes  against  her  seduced  victim; 
having  impelled  only-too-willing  Austria  to  oppress 
the  Serbians  and  hound  Serbia  into  acts  of  aggression 
and  subterranean  opposition;  having  openly  invoked 
and  besought  the  friendship  of  the  United  States  and 
secretly  sought  to  undermine  the  policy  ^  on  which 
her  position  on  the  Continent  of  America  rests  se- 
cure; having  made  of  her  own  Empire  an  arsenal, 
and  war-slaves  of  her  children.  Meanwhile  their 
Kaiser  played  the  part  of  the  enchanted  guest  to  the 
undoing  of  his  credulous  host  in  nearly  every  capital 
of  Europe ;  and  most  of  all  in  England.  It  was  mag- 
nificent in  its  organization,  ruinous  in  its  purposes, 
and  detestable  in  its  debasement  of  a  great  people. 

Baron  Mumm,  the  German  Under-Secretary  for 
the  Colonies,  and  Herr  Dernburg,  ex-Colonial  Sec- 
retary, have  said  that  England  went  into  this  war 
for  commercial  purposes.  If  comment  on  such  a 
charge  is  necessary  at  all,  it  may  be  said  that  if  Eng- 

*  The  Monroe  Doctrine. 


WHY  SHOULD  ENGLAND  FIGHT?       103 

land  went  into  this  war  for  business  reasons  It  would 
be  spending  a  tremendous  lot  of  money  for  a  limited 
return.  Does  any  reasonable  person  believe  that 
Great  Britain  would  spend  her  hundreds  of  millions 
of  pounds  on  the  chance  of  conquering  the  trade  and 
colonial  possessions  of  Germany?  It  was  not  as 
though  British  commerce  was  in  desperate  case.  Be- 
tween 1903  and  19 13  our  imports  had  grown  by 
220  millions,  our  exports  by  270  millions;  our  export 
of  manufactured  goods  had  risen  by  151  millions. 
True,  there  were  signs  that  the  tide  was  on  the  turn, 
but  the  inevitable  ebb  would  reach  all  countries  alike ; 
it  was  not  to  be  stemmed  by  war.  There  was  some 
jealousy,  some  envy,  of  Germany's  commercial  prog- 
ress; but,  when  England  was  bidden  to  "  wake  up," 
it  was  not  to  the  furbishing  of  swords  but  to  greater 
activity  in  factory  and  markets.  If  Germany  was  a 
formidable  rival,  she  was  likewise  a  good  customer; 
would  it  be  common  sense  to  destroy  the  certain  cus- 
tomer in  the  uncertain  hope  of  getting  rid  of  a  rival? 
The  colonial  possessions  of  Germany  would  be  no 
rich  booty;  they  would  bring  nothing  worth  while  to 
Great  Britain  in  our  generation.  Developing  new 
territory  is  expensive;  besides,  the  Party  now  in 
power  in  England  has  ahvays  been  the  foe  of  further 
colonial  development  and  expansion  of  territory. 
Great  Britain  refused  Hawaii  fifty  years  ago;  she 
refused  Samoa  in  the  Eighties.  She  has  more  than 
enough  territory  to  control  and  consolidate,  and  the 
German  colonial  possessions  would  not  and  will  not 
increase  her  trade  appreciably.  Is  a  reduction,  of 
value  on  securities  of  all  kinds  throughout  the  world, 
is  a  crippled  and  oppressive  condition  of  exchange, 
arc  closed  or  restricted  Stock  markets,  is  the  tem- 
porary but  enormous  loss  of  an  immense  discount 
business,  profitable  to  Great  Britain?     Is  there  a  sin- 


104         THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

gle  man  in  financial  England  who  does  not  regard 
the  war  as  a  commercial  calamity  from  which  British 
people  alive  to-day,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the 
world,  will  never  wholly  recover?  If  England  had 
been  other  than  peace-loving  she  might  well  have 
gone  to  war  during  the  last  fifteen  years  to  secure  her 
navy  —  the  insurance  of  her  trade  and  commerce  — 
from  peril  of  the  German  navy.  That  would  have 
been  a  reasonable  pretext  for  or  cause  of  war;  but 
Great  Britain's  mercantile  marine  was  many  times 
larger  than  that  of  Germany,  and  apart  from  all 
other  reasons,  there  was  no  selfish  need  for  this 
crime  against  the  world  and  against  Germany. 
England  is  not  yet  so  foolish,  even  were  the  inten- 
tion possible,  as  to  enter  upon  a  vast  and  bloody 
struggle  to  destroy  the  trade  belonging  to  three  mil- 
lion tons  of  German  shipping  which  Germany  could 
replace  again  after  the  war.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed 
that  Germany  will  not  be  a  commercial  competitor 
when  the  present  war  is  over,  if  she  is  beaten. 
Whatever  may  happen  to  her  armaments  her  trade 
will  revive  and  advance.  Her  people  will  work  and 
thrive;  and  it  Is  for  the  good  of  the  world  that  they 
should  thrive.  If  they  will  but  divest  themselves  of 
ambitions  for  Increase  of  power  and  territory  by  war 
and  at  the  expense  of  other  nations  and  settled  and 
accepted  conditions. 


CHAPTER  V 

GERMAN    COLONIAL    POLICY,    THE    UNITED    STATES, 
AND    THE    MONROE    DOCTRINE 

German  ambitions  for  colonial  Empire,  however, 
and  her  anger  at  any  check  to  her  purposes  have 
been  an  open  book  to  all  who,  from  their  positions 
official,  semi-official,  or  political,  have  been  brought 
I'is-a-vis  of  German  interests  now  adventuring  here, 
now  there,  in  the  quest  for  oversea  territory.  In 
1893  the  present  writer  was  told  by  Senor  Mariscal, 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  Mexico,  that  German 
designs  in  South  America  would  become  a  grave  in- 
ternational matter,  and  that  the  United  States  would 
be  forced  to  emphasize  the  reality  of  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  before  many  years  passed.  As  events 
proved  Seiior  Mariscal  was  right.  In  the  year 
1 901,  at  Aiken,  in  South  Carolina,  the  late  W.  C. 
Whitney,  former  Secretary  of  the  Navy  in  the  Cleve- 
land Administration,  said  to  the  author  of  this  book: 

"  You  think  that  Germany  has  designs  on  the  British  po- 
sition, that  she  wants  and  will  strike  for  Great  Britain's 
Colonies  as  soon  as  she  has  a  navy?  Do  not  fash  yourselves, 
as  the  Scotch  say.  We  will  be  taking  Germany  on  before 
that  time  comes.  Little  as  we  shall  like  it,  we  will  have  to 
do  your  work  for  you.  She  isn't  cured  yet  of  her  designs  on 
South  America.  She  will  try  it  on  and  try  it  on,  and  she 
will  try  it  on  once  too  often.  She  wants  to  challenge  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  and  she  will  do  it  if  she  thinks  she  can  do 
it  safely,  if  she  thinks  the  United  States  will  not  fight.  You 
saw  what  happened  at  Manila.  There  the  British  played 
up  in  style.  Dewey  had  more  than  moral  support  from  you 
there.  Well,  I  tell  you  that  when  I  was  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  under  Cleveland,  I  saw  that  Germany  meant  to  grab 

105 


io6        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Brazil  and  Bolivia  and  Venezuela,  and  any  other  portion  of 
South  America  which  was  too  weak  to  resist  her  —  if  we  let 
her.  I  made  up  my  mind  that  my  country  would  not  let  her 
slice  off  one  little  chunk  from  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  You 
did  not  notice  any  decline  of  the  American  Navy  under  my 
administration,  did  you?  No.  Well,  Germany  made  me 
work  harder  than  I  ever  did  in  my  life.  Don't  worry.  We 
will  have  to  do  your  work  for  you." 

Similar  views  have  been  held  and  stated  by  other 
Americans,  and  the  present  war  has  spread  the  con- 
viction that  the  United  States  cannot  contemplate 
with  a  sense  of  security  the  possible,  if  not  probable, 
rise  of  a  victorious  and  world-dominating  Germany. 
Four  years  ago  the  late  Admiral  Mahan,  writing 
of  British  naval  supremacy  and  German  pretensions 
of  naval  rivalry,  spoke  of  the  necessity, — 

"  For  all  peoples,  who  recognize  the  importance  to  them- 
selves of  equality  or  opportunity  in  the  world  markets,  to  con- 
sider with  what  attitude  of  mind,  what  comprehension  of  con- 
ditions, and  what  measure  of  force,  they  will  approach  the 
inevitable  developments  of  the  future.  .  .  ." 

".  .  .  The  nations  of  the  world  have  to  regard  the  two 
facts:  (i)  a  general  rivalry  in  the  regions  named  (Europe, 
Africa,  and  Asia),  complicated  in  South  America  by  the  Mon- 
roe Doctrine;  and  (2)  a  German  navy  soon  to  be  superior  to 
every  other,  except  the  British.  Should  the  latter  retain  its 
full  present  predominance,  this  coupled  with  the  situation  of 
the  British  Islands,  constitutes  a  check  upon  Germany;  but 
that  check  removed,  none  approaching  it  remains.  It  follows 
that  the  condition  and  strength  of  Great  Britain  is  a  matter 
of  national  interest  to  every  other  community."  ^ 

In  August,  19 14,  shortly  before  he  died,  the  great 
naval  strategist  reaffirmed  his  conviction  more  spe- 
cifically : 

"  If  Germany  succeeds  in  downing  both  France  and  Russia, 

1  A.  T.  Mahan,  The  Interest  of  America  in  International  Condi- 
tions, p.  77.     London,  1910. 


ADMIRAL  MAHAN'S  WARNING  107 

she  gains  a  respite  by  land,  which  ma}^  enable  her  to  build  up 
her  sea-force  until  it  is  equal  or  superior  to  that  of  Great 
Britain.  In  that  case  the  world  will  be  confronted  by  the 
naval  power  of  a  State  not,  like  Great  Britain,  sated  with 
territory,  but  one  eager  and  ambitious  for  expansion,  and 
eager  also  for  influence.  This  consideration  may  well  affect 
American  sympathies."  - 

Another  American  authority  has  expressed  the 
same  opinion,  adding  a  tribute  to  Great  Britain's 
naval  power: 

"  If  it  shall  develop,"  it  says,  "  that  the  Germans  drive  the 
English  from  the  seas,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  then  this 
country  will  have  a  veritable  and  formidable  foe  with  which 
we  may  cope  for  the  protection  of  our  Monroe  Doctrine  only 
by  vast  expenditures  for  naval  defence,  or  forfeit  our  right 
and  power  of  enforcement  of  that  instrument,  to  which,  it 
is  proper  to  remaric,  the  Germans  have  never  subscribed. 
With  the  German  necessity  of  expansion  there  will  be,  with- 
out much  formalit}',  a  descent  upon  Central  American  and 
South  American  domains  as  an  outlet  of  the  excess  Teutonic 
population.  With  the  loss  of  the  English  Fleet  the  power  of 
that  country  to  control  the  seas  will  deprive  us  of  our 
principal  ally  in  the  maintenance  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
which  has  been  honoured  by  Europeans  largely,  if  not  entirely, 
because  of  the  English  naval  fighting  strength."  ^ 

Are  these  views  justified?  Would  German  vic- 
tory over  the  Allies  threaten  the  peace  or  prosperity 
of  the  United  States?  It  should  be  interesting,  and 
perhaps  it  may  be  surprising,  to  some  Americans  to 
learn  from  the  mouths  of  Germans,  not  so  adroit  and 
careful  as  Professor  Miinsterburg  for  instance,  opin- 
ions which  throw  light  on  this  far  from  academic 
subject. 

"  Weltmacht  oder  Niedergang!  (World-power  or 

2  Ibid.,  p.  75. 

■■'  Tfie  Army  and  Navy  Register,  quoted  in  London  Daily  Tele- 
graph, August  22nd,  1914. 


io8        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Downfall!)  will  be  our  rallying  cry,"  cries  General 
Bernhardi  stridently  in  his  book  Germany  and  the 
Next  War.  It  is  an  old,  old  cry,  of  which  we 
thought  the  world  would  hear  no  more ;  or,  if  it  came, 
then  from  some  Oriental  Empire  born  again  and 
moving  ruthlessly  upon  the  Occident.  This  dream 
of  world-dominion  has  come  to  other  States  and  Em- 
pires; sometimes  for  momentary  good  and  sometimes 
for  ill,  but  always  with  misery  and  destruction  in  its 
wake.  Babylon,  Persia,  Greece,  Rome,  Spain,  and 
France  —  and  now  Germany.  Each  time  It  has 
come  all  the  nations  of  the  world  have  had  to  brace 
themselves  for  the  shock.  Some  went  under,  and 
some  survived;  but  none  emerged  unscathed.  In 
modern  times,  nations  determined  to  preserve  their 
independence  and  freedom  from  one  man's  tyranny 
have  united  to  break  the  power  that  threatened  to 
enslave  the  earth.  So  it  was  that  Charles  V,  Philip 
II,  Louis  XIV,  and  Napoleon,  each  in  his  bloody 
day,  was  checked  on  his  course  of  conquest  by  a  Eu- 
rope determined  to  be  free.  The  plans  and  hopes 
of  Imperial  Germany  to-day  affect  the  future  of 
every  nation  everywhere.  The  world  Is  In  the  melt- 
ing-pot again,  old  foundations  shake,  new  structures 
are  in  the  making. 

"  Our  world  has  passed  away 
In  wantonness  o'erthrown. 
There  is  nothing  left  to-day 
But  steel  and  fire  and  stone!  " 

The  sabre-slashing  General  Bernhardi  learned  the 
application  of  the  World-Power-or-Downfall  for- 
mula from  his  teacher,  the  historian  Treitschke, 
and  he,  in  his  turn,  is  supported  by  the  presnt 
Kaiser. 

"  When  the  German  flag  flies  over  and  protects  this  vast 
Empire,  to  whom  will  belong  the  sceptre  of  the  universe  ?  " 


"THE  SCEPTRE  OF  THE  UNIVERSE"       109 

the  burning  rhapsodist  Treitschke  asks  at  the  top  of 
his  voice  in  one  of  his  books,  and  he  does  not  ask  in 
vain.  Miliions  have  bravely  tried  to  answer  on  the 
battle-fields  of  Belgium,  France,  Poland,  and  Silesia. 

With  such  a  spirit  animating  his  loyal  subjects,  the 
Kaiser  was  speaking  to  the  card  in  his  proclamation 
a  few  years  ago  to  the  effect  that,  "  Nothing  must  be 
settled  in  this  world  without  the  intervention  of  Ger- 
many and  of  the  German  Emperor."  * 

The  general  outlines  of  Germany's  world  policy 
are  such  as  to  warrant  apprehension,  by  all  other  peo- 
ples, controlled  by  whatever  conditions  of  neutrality 
and  isolation  in  the  present.  To  produce  particular 
and  specific  expressions  of  German  intentions  which 
threaten  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  United 
States  seems  almost  unnecessary;  even  if  none  were 
to  be  found,  they  could  be  logically  assumed. 
When  an  Empire  proposes  and  plans  to  conquer  the 
world,  it  cannot  make  exceptions;  it  must  remove  all 
obstructions  as  it  marches  on;  and  no  nation  in  the 
world  may  hypnotize  itself  into  an  imaginary  exemp- 
tion. In  this  case,  however,  tangible  testimony  docs 
exist  of  the  intentions  of  Germany  respecting  the 
United  States;  intentions  which  are  menacing.  To 
appreciate  them  rightly,  however  —  since  to  many 
they  will  seem  as  inexplicable  as  they  are  unjustified 
—  German  traditions  and  German  principles  must  be 
considered. 

Materialism  has  produced  in  the  German  what  to 
men  of  other  traditions  seems  an  utterly  cynical  point 
of  view.  Bismarck  had  this  cynical  doctrine  deeply 
rooted  in  him.  "  Every  government,"  he  said, 
"  takes  solely  its  own  interest  as  the  standard  of  its 
actions,  however  it  may  drape  them  with  deductions 

**  Reich,  Germany's  Madness,  p.  51,  New  York,  1914. 


no        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

of  justice  or  sentiment."  ^  While  we  can  admire  the 
sardonic  and  defiant  frankness  of  such  utterances, 
we  must  at  the  same  time  keep  them  clearly  In  mind 
when  attempting  to  Interpret  German  dealings  with 
other  nations  —  nations  like  Belgium,  for  instance. 
A  State  which  holds  such  views  is  naturally  quick  to 
suspect  those  whom  she  morbidly  regards  as  rivals. 

For  those  who  profess  other  aims  and  ideals  than 
her  own,  German  scorn  knew  no  bounds.  This  Is 
perhaps  nowhere  better  demonstrated  than  by  the 
contempt  with  which  BernhardI  treats  the  efforts  of 
the  United  States  towards  International  peace. 
"  We  can  hardly  assume,"  he  says,  "  that  a  real  love 
of  peace  prompts  these  efforts."  ®  The  German 
mind  cannot  even  credit  the  United  States,  In  Its 
happy  Isolation,  with  altruism  and  humanity.  The 
maintenance  of  peace  as  a  national  policy  Is  to  their 
minds  Incredible: 

"  Pacific  ideals,  to  be  sure,  are  seldom  the  real  motive  of 
their  action.  They  usually  employ  the  need  of  peace  as  a 
cloak  under  which  to  promote  their  own  political  aims.  This 
was  the  real  position  of  affairs  at  the  Hague  Congresses,  and 
this  is  also  the  meaning  of  the  action  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  who,  in  recent  times,  have  earnestly  tried  to  con- 
clude treaties  for  the  establishment  of  Arbitration  Courts,  first 
and  foremost  with  England,  but  also  with  Japan,  France,  and 
Germany."  "^ 

These  are  Bernhardl's  views,  and  he  Is  evidently 
convinced  that  each  government  was  trying  to  outwit 
the  other.  For  those  who  Imagined  otherwise  there 
Is  a  sneer: 

"  Theorists  and  fanatics  imagine  that  they  see  in  the  efforts 

^Bismarck's  Reflections  and  Reminiscences,  English  translation, 
1899,  p.  173. 
6  Bernhardi's  Germany  and  the  Next  War,  p.  17. 
"^  Ibid,  p.  17. 


NATIONAL  ISOLATION  iii 

of  President  Taft  a  great  step  forward  on  the  path  of  per- 
petual peace,  and  enthusiastically  agree  with  him.  Even  the 
Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  in  England,  with  well-affected 
idealism,  termed  the  procedure  of  the  United  States  an  era  in 
the  history  of  mankind."  '^ 

Nietzsche  with  equal  ignorance  said: 

"  There  is  an  Indian  savagery',  a  savagery  peculiar  to  the 
Indian  blood,  in  the  manner  in  which  the  Americans  strive 
after  gold."  » 

A  more  sorrowful  result  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
German  militarists  than  their  scorn  of  other  nations 
is  their  feeling  of  national  isolation, ^*^  their  constant 
apprehension  of  hostile  designs  upon  them  by  other 
countries.  They  are  poignantly  conscious  of  being 
thought  the  political  parvenus  of  Europe,  and  they 
believe  that  the  world  views  them  superciliously. 

Of  the  many  things  irking  German  spirit  during 
past  years  none  has  been  accepted  with  less  grace 
than  the  existence  of  certain  superior  advantages, 
real  or  fancied,  possessed  by  other  nations.  It  has 
been  said  that  the  Germans,  more  than  most  peoples, 
should  heed  the  injunction  of  the  Tenth  Command- 
ment. Prince  Billow  bears  witness  to  "  our  old  vice, 
envy  ";  and  he  quotes  the  comment  of  Tacitus  upon 

8  Ibid. 

"Nietzsche,  The  Joyful  ICisJom,  English  edition,  1910,  p.  254. 

1"  Dr.  J.  W.  Headlam  in  his  recent  pamphlet,  Enj^lanii,  Ger- 
many and  Europe,  says:  "This  isolation  of  Germany  is  generally 
attributed  by  German  writers  to  the  genius  and  foresight  of 
Edward  VII.  For  tlie  last  twenty  years  the  policy  of  Germany  has 
indeed  displayed  every  fault.  In  a  position  where  restraint,  dig- 
nity, caution,  reserve  seemed  to  be  dictated,  they  have  been  ad- 
venturous, unstable,  quarrelsome,  interfering.  In  no  part  of  the 
world  could  a  treaty  be  made  or  arrangements  discussed  but  the 
voice  of  Germany  was  heard  declaring  that  no  arrangement  could 
be  made  witiiout  her  being  consulted.  .  .  .  The  result  inevitably 
was  to  alienate  and  alarm  each  nation  in  turn,  and  thereby  to 
create  the  understandings  by  which  each  nation  knew  that  it  could 
reckon  on  the  support  of  others." 


112        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

the  ancestors  of  his  race :  ''  Propter  invidiam  the 
Germans  destroyed  their  liberators,  the  Cherusci."  ^^ 
The  Germans  themselves  admit  that  they  have 
looked  with  envy  and  covetousness  upon  certain  rights 
and  possessions  of  their  neighbours.  The  wide 
realms  and  exclusive  commercial  areas  of  Russia,  of 
the  British  Dominions,  and  of  the  United  States, 
have  appeared  to  them  as  imminent  dangers  to  Ger- 
man prosperity.  Particularly  is  this  true  concerning 
the  United  States  and  her  relations  with  Central  and 
South  America,  as  embodied  in  that  (to  German 
minds)  obsolete  and  ineffective  instruments,  the  Mon- 
roe Doctrine.  To  Berlin  Militarists  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  is  only  the  mere  shadow  of  a  scrap  of 
paper;  and  the  American  claims  based  on  it  are  of- 
fensive to  the  German  mind. 

"  The  enemy,  the  superior  opponent  In  the  eco- 
nomic rivalry  of  the  nations  is  North  America," 
wrote  Professor  Wolff,  of  Breslau  University.^^  It 
must  be  remembered  that  in  the  German  mind,  the 
war  of  commerce  and  the  war  of  arms  are  not  to  be 
distinguished.  Bismarck  said,  with  his  great  gift  for 
phrase-making,  unsurpassed  by  any  modern,  "  War 
is  business,  and  business  is  war."  The  same  terms 
are  used  in  describing  each,  and  the  actual  transition 
from  the  one  to  the  other  Is  merely  a  matter  of  ex- 
pediency. To  destroy  by  system  and  organization, 
to  overpower  by  force  and  weight,  to  be  ruthless  in  so 
doing,  is  common  to  Germany's  war  methods  and 
business  methods.  The  protective  tariff  of  the 
United  States  is  no  less  exasperating  to  Germany 
than  would  be  a  naval  blockade  of  her  ports.  This 
feeling  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Chauvinist 
and    military    class.     Even    the    talented    Socialist, 

11  Von  Biilow,  Imperial  Germany,  p.  224. 

12  Wolflf,  Das  deutsche  Reich  und  das  Weltmarhet,  1901. 


THE  UNITED  STATES  IS  DANGEROUS      113 

Richard  Calwer,  believes  that,  "  Germany  occupies 
no  pleasant  position  In  the  world,"  and  that,  among 
other  perils  — 

"  There  is  the  North  American  Union,  which  net  onl)^  re- 
gards South  America  as  its  domain,  but  because  of  natural, 
technical,  and  economic  reasons,  is  in  many  respects  dangerous 
to  us."  " 

For  another  State  to  be  "  superior  "  in  any  way 
is,  to  minds  steeped  in  the  Prussian  doctrine  of  might 
and  power,  to  make  them  "  dangerous."  This  ob- 
session of  the  Intimate  connection  between  commerce 
and  war  is  oddly  exemplified  In  the  rhetorical  lan- 
guage of  another  German  writer,  who  is  warning 
Holland  that  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States 
are  only  waiting  their  opportunity  to  seize  her  col- 
onies : 

"  Spain  has  sunk  to  her  knees  before  the  brutal  onslaught 
of  America,  and  Portugal  hangs  like  a  fly  in  the  spider's  web, 
mercilessly  abandoned  to  the  monopolistic  Stock  Exchange 
system  of  England."  ^* 

For  the  most  part,  however,  German  hostility  to 
the  United  States  is  not  based  on  anything  so  specific, 
German  writers  present  no  convincing  proofs  of  ac- 
tual American  aggressiveness.  To  them  this  is  not 
necessary;  rivalry  In  any  form  is  hostility,  and  supe- 
riority is  a  menace.  Assertion  of  supreme  authority 
is  a  challenge;  hence  the  abhorrence  of  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  for  itself,  apart  from  the  fact  that  it  has 
blocked  the  way  to  German  dominion  in  South  Amer- 
ica. The  claim  of  the  United  States  to  political 
supervision  of  the  destinies  of  the  South  American 

^•-  Quoted  from  Sozialistic/ie  Monatsliefte  in  Dawson's  The  E<vo- 
lution  of  Modern  Germany,  p.  341. 

1*  From  German  Ambitions,  by  Vigilans  sed  /Equus. 


114        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Republics  Is,  to  the  German  mind,  an  open  act  of 
aggression.  It  is,  indeed,  a  matter  of  history  that 
Germany  has  never  recognized  the  validity  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine.  She  has  submitted  to  its  de- 
mands, but  with  ill  grace.  It  has  interfered  with  her 
plans  of  colonization.  It  forced  her  to  look  east- 
ward from  Brazil  to  the  less  alluring  spaces  of  Af- 
rica, where  the  lands  suited  to  white  populations 
were  already  extensively  occupied  and  the  best  ab- 
sorbed. 

It  was  only  after  the  Monroe  Doctrine  —  sup- 
ported by  the  combined  diplomatic  and  naval  forces 
of  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  —  had  inter- 
fered with  German  armed  pourparlers  in  Venezuela 
that  the  Kaiser  fixed  his  attention  elsewhere.  Africa 
could  not  satisfy  his  hopes  of  a  Colonial  Empire;  it 
could  not  provide  for  large  German  populations; 
and  for  a  long  time  it  could  not  pay.  He  turned  to 
the  East  —  to  China,  and  thereafter  much  ma- 
noeuvring and  some  set-backs  which  need  not  be  dis- 
cussed here,  the  happy  accident  of  the  murder  of 
German  missionaries  gave  him  the  opportunity  he 
needed,  and  Kiao  Chou,  which  cost  him  £25,000,- 
000  to  develop,  gave  his  country  a  base  of  impor- 
tance in  Asia.  With  its  surrender  the  Kaiser's  dream 
ends,  for  his  day  at  least.  In  Morocco  he  was  also 
unfortunate,  but  his  misfortune  cost  him  no  cash,  as 
he  acquired  no  territory;  and  then  came  his  adven- 
tures in  Asia  Minor  and  Persia  and  the  consequent 
necessary  interference  in  the  affairs  of  the  Balkans. 
The  harvest  of  these  later  ventures  Is  now  being 
reaped  on  the  battlefields  of  Europe. 

It  may  easily  be  claimed,  therefore,  that  by  justly 
denying  to  Germany  the  right  to  interfere  in  the 
affairs  of  South  America,  the  United  States  has  a 
share   in  the   many  antecedent  causes   of  the  war. 


BRAZIL  AND  BOLIVIA  115 

However  that  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  the  first  di- 
rection of  Germany's  colonial  ambitions  was,  by 
preference,  towards  South  America.  Though  tem- 
porarily checked,  it  is  certain  that  these  ambitions 
have  not  been  relinquished: 

"  In  more  than  one  respect  South  America  is  the  land  of 
the  future;  there  is  more  to  be  got  in  South  America  than 
there  is  in  Africa," 

writes  Herr  Schmoller,  in  a  book  with  the  signifi- 
cantly Germanic  title  of  Policy  of  Commerce  and 
Force. 

"  We  must  at  all  costs  desire  that  in  Southern  Brazil,  a 
land  of  twenty  to  thirty  million  Germans  may  come  into 
being  —  no  matter  whether  it  remains  part  of  Brazil,  or  forms 
an  independent  State,  or  comes  into  closer  relations  with  our 
Empire." 

Thereupon  Herr  Schmoller  feelingly  quotes  from 
statistics  to  show  the  growing  preponderance  of  Ger- 
mans in  Brazil,  and  refers  to  the  statement  of  the 
Handelsmuseum  that  — 

"  Little  by  little,  slowly  and  surely,  Germany  Is  securing 
the  trade  of  Bolivia.  When  she  has  done  that  entirely,  she 
will  have  secured  the  plenitude  of  influence,  a  complete  moral 
and  material  supremacy,  and  a  colony  acquired  without  war 
or  expense."  ^° 

In  an  article  in  the  Fortnightly  Revieiv  for  Janu- 
ary, 19 1 5,  a  writer  who  signs  himself  "  Fabricius," 
from  internal  evidence  "  a  man  of  mark  in  his  day," 
gives  several  pages  of  extracts  from  a  book  by  Emil 
Witte,  at  one  time  an  attache  to  the  German  Embassy 
in  Washington.  Mr.  Witte's  sensational  book  was 
published  in  Leipzig  in  1907,  and  it  throws  light 
upon  German-American  relations  and  German  offi- 
15  Schmoller,  quoted  by  Emil  Reich  in  Germany's  Madness,  p.  56. 


ii6        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

cial  purposes.  Herr  Witte  declares  that,  after  the 
difficulty  in  Manila  between  Germany  and  the  United 
States,  the  German  Government  encouraged  the 
formation  of  German  veteran  societies  throughout 
the  United  States  which,  by  close  inter-connection, 
could  become  an  organization  of  great  power.  He 
says  that  on  the  6th  of  October,  1901,  Germanism 
in  the  United  States  was  organized  in  Philadelphia 
and  Pennsylvania. 

It  were  better  to  use  Mr.  Witte's  own  words  in 
order  to  convey  exactly  what  the  meaning  and  pur- 
pose of  the  organization  of  Germanism  in  the  United 
States  was: 

"  On  that  date  the  '  Deutsch-Amerikanische  Nationalbund 
der  Vereinigten  Staaten  von  Amerika  '  was  founded.  Ac- 
cording to  its  constitution,  it  endeavours  to  awaken  among  the 
American  population  of  German  descent  a  feeling  of  unity,  to 
organize  it  for  the  purpose  of  energetically  protecting  the 
common  interests  of  Germanism,  etc. 

"  It  should  be  of  interest  to  consider  the  activity  of  the 
German  Bund.  It  agitated  energetically  with  the  object  of 
inducing  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  intervene 
in  the  war  between  England  and  the  Boers.  In  support  of 
this  agitation  it  handed  to  Congress  a  petition  which  weighed 
more  than  four  hundred  pounds,  and  which  was  more  than 
five  miles  long. 

"  An  organization,  similar  in  character  and  scope  to  that 
representing  all  German-Americans,  is  the  '  Centralverband 
deutscher  Veteranen  und  Kriegerbunde  Nord-Amerikas ' — 
the  Central  Society  of  German  Veterans  and  Soldier  Societies 
of  North  America.  The  principles  and  aims  of  that  society 
are  similar  to  that  of  the  parent  society.  .  .  . 

"  Without  doubting  for  a  moment  the  often-asserted  loy- 
alty to  the  United  States  expressed  by  the  members  of  the 
German  Soldiers'  Societies  in  the  United  States,  and  without 
dwelling  on  the  reasons  why  they  have  been  officially  dis- 
tinguished by  the  German  Government  by  sending  them  flags, 
decorations,  gracious  letters,  etc.,  it  must  be  frankly  stated 


"THE  HYPHENATED  AMERICAN"       117 

that  the  relations  hetiveen  official  Germany  and  the  emigrant 
subjects  of  the  Emperor,  ivhethcr  they  have  become  citizens 
of  the  Republic  or  not,  may  lead  to  serious  complications  be- 
tween Germany  and  the  United  States,  and  to  unforeseen  inci- 
dents which  at  any  moment  may  involve  both  Powers  in 
serious  difficulty.  .  .  ." 

This  is  a  very  remarkable  statement,  but  it  comes 
from  a  former  official  of  the  German  Government, 
and  it  is  supported  by  events  which  have  happened 
since  the  beginning  of  the  war.  It  should  also  be 
read  in  connection  with  the  fact  that  in  19 13  Ger- 
many passed  a  law  preserving  for  a  German  his  na- 
tionality even  when  he  has  become  naturalized  in 
another  country.  That  was  a  very  careful  piece  of 
legislation  which  had  more  than  native  German  sen- 
timent behind  it.  The  German  Press  Bureau  in  the 
United  States  has  at  its  command  an  immense  organ- 
ization representing  millions  of  Germans  in  the  coun- 
try, and  those  organizations  have  been  used,  as  is 
well  known,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  pressure  to 
bear  upon  the  United  States  Government  in  a  great 
number  of  directions  —  in  attempting  to  promote 
legislation  which  would  hamper  Great  Britain  in 
securing  ammunition  and  supplies  from  the  United 
States;  in  regard  to  contraband;  in  relation  to  the 
purchase  of  the  German  ships  interned  in  American 
ports;  and  in  squeezing  the  President  into  a  prefer- 
ential attitude  towards  Germany  by  a  threat  to  use 
the  elections  for  that  purpose. 

This  threat  has  been  denied  by  those  Interested 
in  lulling  the  suspicions  of  non-Germans  in  the 
United  States  in  regard  to  conspiracy  or  "  undue 
mfliience,"  but  that  the  German-American  has  sought 
lately  to  punish  the  President  and  his  party  for  sup- 
posed leanings  to  the  Allies  is  well  known  and  has 
been  widely  discussed.     The  following  letter  which 


ii8        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

appeared  In  the  North  American  Review  for  Janu- 
ary, 1915,  is  evidence  of  a  substantial  character: 

"  Sir, —  So  far  as  I  am  Informed  you  are  mistaken  in  your 
speculations  about  the  last  election.  Among  the  German- 
American  voters  the  word  was  passed  around  from  North  to 
South,  and  from  West  to  East,  to  vote  against  the  Democratic 
ticket  in  order  to  protest  against  the  obviously  one-sided  atti- 
tude the  administration  is  taking  in  the  present  European 
conflict.  I  was  one  of  the  many  who  followed  this  advice, 
and  I  can  name  at  least  twenty  other  men  who  voted  the 
same  way.  Some  of  us  thought  that  Mr,  Gerard  might  be  a 
very  desirable  addition  to  the  Senate,  where  we  hoped  he 
might  be  influential  in  bringing  about  a  real  neutrality  and  a 
greater  impartiality  in  our  foreign  affairs.  I  am  sure  that 
you  will  have  to  reckon  with  us  when  you  begin  to  explain 
why  Mr.  Gerard  '  ran  70,000  ahead  of  the  State  ticket.' 

"A.  BussE,  Ph.D., 
"  New  York  City."  "  Professor  in  Hunter  College." 

The  United  States  has  to  decide  for  itself  whether 
it  welcomes  an  organized  foreign  settlement  in  the 
United  States  for  a  purely  political  object,  which  is 
intended  to  be  for  the  advantage  of  the  mother- 
country  of  emigrant  Germans.  It  is  to  be  noted 
that  no  such  organizations  exist  among  British  men 
in  any  country  to  which  they  have  gone,  and  certainly 
not  to  any  degree  or  in  any  sense  in  the  United  States. 

It  is  worth  observing  also  that  in  the  view  of  Ger- 
many, the  West  Indies  is  also  very  attractively  situ- 
ated for  its  purposes.  A  professor  at  Strassburg 
University  has  given  them  his  careful  consideration, 
and  reports  as  follows : 

"It  would  give  a  powerful  impulse  to  our  trade  and 
shipping  if  we  had  a  port  of  our  own  in  the  West  Indies,  with 
trade-emporium  and  coaling  station.  Such  an  acquisition  is 
not  impossible,  as  the  Danish  islands  of  Sainte  Croix,  St. 
Thomas,  and  St.  John  have,  in  a  sense,  been  in  the  market." 


GERMANY  AND  THE  CARIBBEAN  SEA       119 

This  was  written  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish-Amer- 
ican War,  and  the  moment  seemed  very  opportune 
to  Professor  Waltershausen,  of  Strassburg,^" 

"  Should  German  diplomacy  at  Copenhagen  prove  able  to 
overcome  the  anti-German  resistance  of  the  Danes,  now 
( 1898)  is  the  time  for  us  to  acquire  the  islands.  The  United 
States  are  involved  with  Spain,  and  have  no  money  to  spare." 

Three  years  later  another  German  writer,  Herr 
Dix,  called  attention  to  what  seemed  to  him  a  splen- 
did chance  of  being  "  excessively  disagreeable  "  to 
the  United  States,  by  the  purchase  of  the  island  of 
St.  Thomas  from  Denmark,  noting  its  great  advan- 
tages to  a  "  World-Power  "  which  had  an  interest 
"  in  the  future  Isthmian  Canal."  It  was  his  opinion 
that  previous  negotiations  had  fallen  through,  mainly 
because  the  United  States  reckoned  on  getting  the 
Danish  inheritance  some  fine  day  without  paying  for 
it.^^  In  19 1 2  it  seemed  as  though  the  chance  had 
come  for  Germany  to  achieve  the  aspirations  of  Herr 
Dix;  for  in  May  of  that  year  the  King  of  Denmark 
actually  signed  a  concession  to  the  harbour  of  St. 
Thomas  to  Germany.  It  Is  true  that  as  the  result 
of  a  powerful  agitation,  the  concession  was  rescinded; 
but  the  Incident  is  clear  evidence  of  Germany's  am- 
bitious purposes  in  the  Caribbean  Sea. 

The  Monroe  Doctrine,  It  will  be  observed.  Is  ut- 
terly ignored;  and  It  would  appear  that.  In  the  eyes 
of  these  writers,  the  United  States,  by  Its  own  acts, 
has  voided  any  justification  for  a  policy  of  exclusive 
control  over  the  American  continent.  This  view  Is 
not,  however,  confined  to  professors  and  publicists,  as 

1"  Waltershausen,  Dcuiscldand  tiud  die  IlandehpoH/ik  dcr  Vcrc- 
inii^tcn  Staaten  Ton  Atnerika,  1898. 

''  J^ix,  Deutschland  auf  den  Uocltstrassen  des  fVellivirlsc/iafte- 
icrke/irs,  1901. 


120        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

German  apologists  In  America  now  declare.     It  has 
august  sanction. 

In  an  article  already  quoted  from  the  Fortnightly 
Review  by  "  Fabricius,"  a  statement  on  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  which  Prince  Bismarck,  on  February  9th, 
1896,  caused  to  be  printed  in  the  Hamburger  Nach- 
richten,  Is  Included.     It  Is  as  follows: 

"We  are  of  opinion  that  that  doctrine  (the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine) and  the  way  in  which  it  is  now  advanced  by  the  Amer- 
ican Republic  is  an  incredible  impertinence  towards  the  rest 
of  the  world.  The  Monroe  Doctrine  is  merely  an  act  of 
violence,  based  upon  great  strength,  towards  all  American 
States  and  towards  those  European  States  which  possess  inter- 
ests in  America.  .  .  .  We  are  under  the  impression  that  the 
great  wealth  which  the  American  soil  had  furnished  to  its 
inhabitants  has  caused  part  of  the  American  legislators  to 
overestimate  their  own  rights,  and  to  underestimate  at  the 
same  time  the  right  to  independence  possessed  by  the  other 
American  Powers  and  by  the  European  Powers  as  well." 

There  Is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  attitude  of 
Germany  has  changed  towards  the  Monroe  Doctrine; 
and  it  Is  quite  clear  that  If  Great  Britain  and  her 
Allies  should  be  defeated  In  this  war,  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  In  relation  to  the  policy  of  Germany  would 
no  longer  be  a  matter  of  Inspired  protest  or  of 
academic  Inquiry;  and  that  neither  Canada,  the  West 
Indies,  nor  South  America  would,  In  the  German 
view,  be  protected  by  its  canons. 

Nothing  could  show  Germany's  policy  more 
clearly  than  Its  attitude  in  the  Spanish-American 
War,  when,  had  it  been  possible,  she  would  have 
prevented  the  United  States  from  acquiring  the  Phil- 
ippines. She  had  a  squadron  there  as  large  as  that 
commanded  by  Admiral  Dewey.  Admiral  Died- 
rlchs  Interfered  with  Admiral  Dewey's  operations, 
and  only  the  Intervention  of  England  prevented  a 


CHALLENGING  THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE     121 

collision  between  German  and  American  naval 
forces  —  as  it  had  done  before  in  1889  in  the  har- 
bour of  Apia  in  Samoa,  when  the  Calliope,  com- 
manded by  Captain  Kane,  brought  effective  influence 
to  bear;  enforced  dramatically  by  the  hurricane  which 
destroyed  four  German,  and  three  American,  war- 
ships lying  in  the  harbour. 

The  following  quotation  from  "  Nauticus  "  in  the 
German  Year  Book  bears  not  indirectly  upon  the 
statement  made  by  Bismarck.  It  would  imply  that 
the  United  States  has  some  right  to  be  the  "  pro- 
tector "  of  the  American  continent,  but  that  its  claim 
to  uphold  the  Monroe  Doctrine  disappeared  when 
it  began  to  pursue  a  policy  of  Empire  outside  the 
boundaries  of  the  United  States. 

"  The  interference  of  the  States  with  other  continents 
which  has  actually  taken  place  should  make  an  end  of  the 
Doctrine,  but  Americans  will  not  see  it. 

"  One  side  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  was,  No  intervention 
outside  America,  and  that  went  with  the  seizure  of  the 
Philippines."  ^^ 

The  learned  Dr.  W.  Wintzer  long  ago  decided 
that  the  time  had  come  for  Germany  not  merely  to 
ignore  this  absurd  superstition  of  "  the  Yankees," 
but  to  defy  it  openly.  He  gives  expression  to  the 
widespread  German  sentiment  on  this  matter  in  his 
book,  Germany  and  the  Future  of  Tropical  Amer- 
ica, in  which  he  says  that  "  the  moral  core  "  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  disappeared  on  the  day  when  the 
document  concerning  the  annexation  of  the  Philip- 
pines was  signed  by  President  McKinley.  There- 
fore, he  assumes  that  Germany  has  — 

"  The  right  to  confront  this  Greater-American  doctrine 
with   a  Greater-German  one:   namely,   that  European,   and 

18  "  Nauticus,"  Jahrhurli  fiir  Deutsrhlands  Sccinteressen. 


122        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

among  them  German,  interests  exist  also  in  South  America, 
in  case  we  have  the  power  to  assert  them." 

According  to  Dr,  Wintzer,  Americans  have  no  im- 
portance in  South  America,  and  "  south  of  the  Isth- 
mus of  Panama  the  Yankees  count  for  Httle  or  noth- 
ing." He  endeavours  to  show  that  American  trade 
is  faUing  off  there  while  German  trade  is  growing, 
and  that  because  of  this  the  United  States  might  as 
well  abandon  her  interests.  Germany,  he  loudly  de- 
clares, needs  room  for  her  rapidly  growing  popula- 
tion, and  she, — 

"  Cannot  allow  herself  to  be  simply  dispossessed  of  her  in- 
heritance in  one  of  the  most  thinly  peopled  and  richest 
quarters  of  the  globe  —  South  America."  ^^ 

This  "  inheritance  "  also,  presumably,  is  to  be 
established  by  the  power  to  claim  it;  and  with  a 
clank  of  the  mailed  fist,  always  so  near  to  every  Ger- 
man professor's  writing  table,  Herr  Wintzer  lays 
down  the  text  of  his  doctrine : 

"  Equality  of  treatment  with  the  United  States  in  South 
America :  that  is  the  theory  which  we,  both  on  principle  and  as 
occasion  serves,  must  oppose  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  and 
which,  too,  should  the  moment  come,  we  must  defend  by 
force."  20 

With  these  evidences  of  German  intentions  and 
policy  regarding  South  America  before  us,  it  will 
perhaps  be  appropriate  to  recall  the  exact  nature  of 
the  document  which  has  in  the  past  been  such  a  stern 
impediment  to  their  application,  and  has  had  sensible 
influence  on  the  actions  of  the  Powers  of  the  world 
and  on  civilization  at  large.     Its  terms  are  specific. 

In  his  famous  message  to  Congress  in  the  year 

19  Wintzer,  Die  Deutschen  im  tropischen  America. 

20  Ihid. 


1 


PRESIDENT  MONROE'S  INIESSAGE         123 

1823,  when  discussing  the  settlement  of  claims  of 
Russia,  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  in  the 
Northwest  of  the  American  continent,  President 
Monroe  said: 

"  The  occasion  has  been  judged  proper  for  asserting  as  a 
principle  in  which  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  United  States 
are  involved,  that  the  American  continents,  by  the  free  and 
independent  condition  which  they  have  assumed,  are  hence- 
forth not  to  be  considered  as  subjects  for  further  colonization 
by  any  European  Power." 

Discussing  the  Holy  Alliance,  the  President 
added: 

"  We  owe,  therefore,  to  candour  and  to  the  amicable  rela- 
tions existing  between  the  United  States  and  those  powers, 
to  declare  that  we  should  consider  any  attempt  on  their  part 
to  extend  their  system  to  any  portion  of  this  hemisphere  as 
dangerous  to  our  peace  and  safety.  With  the  existing  colo- 
nies or  dependencies  of  any  European  Power  we  have  not 
interfered  and  shall  not  interfere.  -But  with  the  govern- 
ments who  have  declared  their  independence  and  maintained 
it,  and  whose  independence  we  have  on  great  consideration 
and  on  just  principles  acknowledged,  we  could  not  view^  any 
interposition  for  the  purposes  of  oppressing  them  or  con- 
trolling in  any  other  manner  their  destiny  by  any  European 
power  in  any  other  light  than  as  a  manifestation  of  an  un- 
friendly disposition  towards  the  United  States,  ...  It  is 
impossible  that  the  Allied  Powers  should  extend  their  political 
system  to  any  portion  of  either  continent  without  endanger- 
ing our  peace  and  happiness.  ...  It  is  equally  impossible, 
therefore,  that  we  should  behold  such  interposition  in  any 
form  with  indifference." 

Troublesome  as  may  be  the  Monroe  Doctrine  to 
Germany  or  any  other  Power  which  has  colonial  and 
imperial  ambitions  in  relation  to  the  American  con- 
tinent, it  has  been  justified  by  events.  The  fate  of 
Maximilian  in  Mexico  is  known  to  all;  and  with  his 


124        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

fate  was,  in  some  sense,  linked  that  of  France;  for 
the  failure  of  Marshal  Bazaine's  army  in  Mexico  to 
sustain  Maximilian's  ambitions  and  position,  had  in- 
fluence in  causing  Napoleon  III  to  divert  the  atten- 
tion of  the  French  people,  restless  under  the  check, 
by  a  challenge  to  Germany:  with  what  end  the  world 
knows.  It  is  possible  that  if  France  had  never  sent 
an  army  to  Mexico,  this  war  which  now  tortures  the 
world  might  not  have  occurred.  The  Franco-Prus- 
sian War  gave  Germany  her  present  ambitions  and 
her  cry  of  "  Empire  or  Downfall." 

One  prophetically-minded  Pan-German,  who  calls 
himself  "  Germania  Triumphans,"  ^^  in  a  book  con- 
taining a  map  of  the  world  redistributed  according  to 
the  author's  forecast  for  19 15,  draws  a  vivid  picture 
of  Germany  fighting  both  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States.  According  to  this  seer,  the  United 
States  is  first  attacked  and  conquered,  and  then  Bri- 
tain, having  stood  passively  by  meanwhile,  is  taken 
in  turn.  Five  years  later  another  writer^  Dr.  Eisen- 
hart,  making  a  similar  prophecy,  thought  fit  to  reverse 
the  sequence.  According  to  him  Great  Britain  will 
be  the  first  to  fall,  adding,  that  then  would  come  the 
time  to  reckon  with  America. 

With  those  to  whom  such  theories  appear  fustian, 
agreement  is  easy;  yet  it  must  be  remembered  that 
it  is  just  this  sort  of  nonsense  which  has  been 
thought  and  spoken  and  written  in  Germany  for 
years  past.  It  is  the  spirit  of  it  which  has  launched 
the  German  people  upon  their  present  terrific 
struggle  for  World-Empire.  With  the  German  fail- 
ing for  "  every  sort  of  unpractical  dream  "  goes  the 
fanatical  passion  for  logical  conclusions.     Who  can 

21 "  Germania  Triumphans."  Ruckblick  auf  die  iveltgescJiicht- 
lichen  Ereifnisse  der  Jalirs  1900-1915,  von  einem  Grossdeutschen, 
1895. 


TRANSATLANTIC  AMBITIONS  125 

say  where  these  two  characteristics  may  not  lead 
them,  if  they  do  not  suffer  a  speedy  and  permanent 
check? 

The  apologists  of  the  German  nation  to-day  are 
making  great  efforts  to  repudiate  the  past  expres- 
sions and  sentiments  of  their  militarist  professors 
and  academic  generals.  These  do  not,  it  is  declared, 
truly  represent  the  essentially  peace-loving  and  unag- 
gressive nature  of  the  German  people.  In  the  spec- 
tacle of  a  nation,  quoting  Goethe  and  Schiller,  whilst 
acting  Bernhardi  and  Treitschke,  there  is,  however, 
little  appeal  to  any  sense  save  that  of  humour. 

The  same  apologists  will  no  doubt  try  to  make 
light  of  the  concluding  paragraph  of  Treitschke's 
lecture  on  the  organization  of  the  army  in  his  Politik: 

"  I  shall,  in  conclusion,  only  point  out  shortly  that  the  fleet 
is  beginning  to-day  to  gain  increased  importance,  not  specially 
for  European  war  —  no  one  believes  any  longer  that  a  fight 
between  Great  Powers  can  be  decided  nowadays  by  naval 
battles  —  but  rather  for  the  protection  of  trade  and  colonies. 
The  domination  of  the  transatlantic  countries  will  noiu  be  the 
first  task  of  European  battle-fleets.  For,  as  the  aim  of  human 
culture  will  be  the  aristocracy  of  the  white  race  over  the  whole 
earth,  the  importance  of  a  nation  will  ultimately  depend  upon 
u'hat  share  it  has  in  the  domination  of  the  transatlantic  world. 
Therefore,  the  importance  of  the  fleet  has  again  grown  greater 
in  our  days."  — 

*'  Weltviacht  oder  Niedergang!  " —  Some  glimpse 
of  the  relentless  magnitude  of  the  ambition  expressed 
in  that  cry  has  been  given  here,  but  the  full  extent 
of  it  cannot  be  foreseen,  and  all  lovers  of  civilization 
will  hope  that  it  may  never  be  realized.  This  world 
would  be  an  unhappy  place  were  it  to  be  ruled  by 
the  people  to  whom,  ''  The  maintenance  of  peace 
can  never  or  may  never  be  the  goal." 

22  Treitschke,  "  The  Organization  of  the  Army."  Translated  by 
Adam  L.  Gowans,  1914. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    OPPORTUNITY 

The  development  of  German  power  In  recent  his- 
tory may  be  roughly  divided  into  two  periods  —  the 
Bismarckian  era,  and  the  twenty-four  years  which 
have  elapsed  since  Bismarck's  downfall.  Stated  dif- 
ferently, the  accession  of  William  II  was  the  turning- 
point  in  Germany's  military  programme.  As  shown 
in  a  previous  chapter,  Prince  Bismarck's  ambition 
was  limited  to  the  consolidation  of  Germany's  Euro- 
pean position.  He  had  dreams  of  a  greater  Ger- 
many, but  as  his  memoirs  and  biographies  and  the 
public  records  of  his  speeches  show,  he  did  not  make 
them  the  basis  of  policy.  Indeed,  he  carefully 
curbed  ambition  and  challenge  of  the  British  Empire 
by  declaring  that  the  maritime  strength  of  Great  Bri- 
tain was  a  dominant  factor  in  the  peace  of  the  world, 
and  he  warned  the  Reichstag  against  the  "  offensive- 
defensive  "  policy,  which  has  been  the  mainspring  of 
Germany's  later  schemes : 

"  If  I  were  to  say  to  you,  '  we  are  threatened  by  France  and 
Russia ;  it  is  better  for  us  to  fight  at  once ;  an  offensive  war  is 
more  advantageous  to  us,'  and  ask  you  for  a  credit  of  a  hun- 
dred millions,  I  do  not  know  whether  you  would  grant  it  — 
I  hope  not." 

It  was  enough  for  the  great  builder  of  Germany 
to  see  that  her  military  strength  was  equal  to  the  de- 
fence of  what  she  had  won,  to  fortify  her  position 
by  alliances,  and,  for  the  rest,  to  trust  to  foreign  and 
external  conflicts  of  interests,  which  he  might  on  oc- 

126 


THE  POLICY  OF  BISMARCK  127 

caslon  judiciously  encourage,  to  give  Germany  im- 
munity from  attack. 

The  circumstances  of  the  time  were  favourable  for 
this  cautious  policy  which  traded  on  the  troubles  of 
other  nations.  Great  Britain  always  had  before  her 
the  vision  of  Russian  columns  threatening  her  In- 
dian Empire;  and  also  the  memory  of  thwarted  Rus- 
sian ambitions  at  the  Congress  of  Berlin,  which 
might  well  be,  and  were  for  long,  mainsprings  of 
Russian  policy.  There  were  sources  of  friction  be- 
tween France  and  Great  Britain  in  Newfoundland 
and  Africa;  while  the  bombardment  of  Alexandria, 
with  subsequent  excursions  into  the  Soudan,  and  the 
disconcerting  and  humiliating  episode  of  Fashoda, 
kept  the  sore  open  for  over  twenty  years.  The 
Franco-Russian  Alliance  was  still  a  thing  of  the  fu- 
ture, and  an  unlikely  event.  The  break-up  of  the 
Dreikaiserbund,  and  the  failure  of  the  "  reinsurance 
treaties  "  with  Russia  which  followed  this  event,  did 
not  at  once  materially  affect  "Germany's  position.^ 
It  was  succeeded  by  the  Triple  Alliance,  which  has 
lasted  so  long  and  with  so  imposing  an  appearance, 
but  was  so  lacking  in  fundamental  purpose  and  com- 
mon understanding  that  one  of  its  personnel  boldly 
abandoned  it  when  cohesion  and  undivided  support 
were  most  needed. 

Prince  Bismarck,  however,  did  not  and  could  not 

J  The  Dreikaiserbund:  an  alliance  of  the  Emperors  of  Austria, 
Germany  and  Russia,  dating  from  the  meeting  at  Skierniewice  in 
1884.  Owing  to  the  antagonistic  aims  of  Austrian  and  Russian 
policy  the  understanding  only  lasted  until  1886.  To  minimize  the 
consequences  of  this  split  Bismarck  exerted  himself  to  maintain 
friendly  relations  between  Germany  and  Russia  by  means  of  what 
was  known  as  the  Re-Insurance  Treaty;  which,  in  Prince  Billow's 
words,  "  assured  a  more  or  less  exceptional  position  for  German 
policy  behind  the  defensive  position  of  the  Triple  Alliance."  Bis- 
marck's successor  failed  to  renew  the  Treaty,  and  ultimately  this 
failure  led  to  the  Franco-Russian  agreement. 


128        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

foresee  the  adventurous  policy  which  was  to  follow 
his  disappearance  from  the  scene.  So  long  as  he 
held  office  under  the  old  Emperor  whom  he  served  so 
long  and  so  well,  Germany  was  absolutely  immune 
against  attack  and  freed  from  the  need  of  feverish 
military  development.  When  the  Boulanger  Law 
raised  the  peace  footing  of  the  French  army  above 
500,000  men,  while  that  of  Germany  was  427,000, 
and  that  of  Russia  550,000,  Bismarck  was  content 
to  counter  with  41,000  men  added  to  the  peace  es- 
tabhshment  for  seven  years. 

The  old  emperor  died,  and  Frederick  his  son 
reigned  for  only  a  few  months.  Had  Frederick 
lived,  he  would  probably  have  tried  to  consolidate 
Germany  by  constitutional  reform;  and  perhaps  he 
might  have  succeeded,  despite  Prussian  admission  of 
German  political  incapacity.  But  the  experiment  was 
never  to  be  tried.  William  II,  a  Prussian  of  the 
Prussians,  a  whole-souled  Brandenberger,  inherited 
neither  his  father's  sober  and  trained  military  ca- 
pacity nor  his  liberal  opinions,  though  he  possessed 
an  intellectual  equipment  of  a  very  vigorous  and 
original  order.  He  "  threw  back  "  to  a  more  prim- 
itive political  type.  As  Alexander  burned  to  ex- 
pand the  kingdom  won  by  Philip  into  a  world-empire, 
in  which  he  would  make  all  the  barbarians  Hellenes, 
so  William  II  accepted  Treitschke's  teaching  that, — 

"  The  greatness  and  good  of  the  world  is  to  be  found  in 
the  predominance  there  of  German  culture,  of  the  German 
mind,  in  a  word  of  the  German  character." 

Bismarck  fell,  and  then,  as  Prince  Billow  has 
shown,  the  Kaiser  was  steadily  driven  Into  a  policy 
of  aggression.  From  this  policy,  even  had  he 
wished   to    do    so,    he    could   not    escape,    however 


THE  BAGDAD  ADVENTURE  129 

shrewd  his  judgment  might  be;  and  It  was  shrewd 
enough  to  wait  for  war,  or  at  least  to  prevent  war 
until  Germany  was  a  power  commercially  and  in- 
dustrially; until  her  banks  could  give  her  rope  enough 
to  hang  herself  or  her  enemies. 

Under  Count  Caprivi,  who  succeeded  Bismarck, 
the  peace  establishment  of  the  army  was  again  in- 
creased, and  time  and  again  it  has  been  increased 
until  it  stood  early  in  19 14  at  the  enormous  total  of 
800,000  men.  At  the  same  time  the  term  of  service 
was  reduced  from  three  years  to  two,  so  making  con- 
scription less  burdensome  and  enormously  increasing 
the  number  of  trained  men.  France,  no  doubt  in- 
cited by  the  adventurous  and  unstable  Boulanger, 
"  that  man  of  straw,"  had  given  an  excuse  for  Bis- 
marck's addition  to  the  German  army;  but  there 
has  been  no  such  excuse  for  the  additions  made  dur- 
ing the  last  twenty  years.  During  this  period 
France,  with  the  utmost  efforts,  has  never  been  able 
to  keep  up  an  establishment  of  more  than  545,000 
men,  with  a  war  strength  of  4,000,000,  or  about 
two-thirds  of  the  German  war  establishment. 

Contemporaneously  with  this  vast  increase  of  the 
German  army  came  the  development  of  colonial  am- 
bition; the  acquisition  of  oversea  territory;  and  the 
foundation  of  a  navy,  the  growth  of  which  has  set 
the  world  agape.  Germany's  territorial  acquisitions 
were,  in  themselves,  of  no  great  immediate  value;  but 
as  Prince  Biilow  more  than  once  suggests,  they  are  of 
value  as  points  of  support,  as  coaling-stations  and 
"  jumping-off  "  places.  The  most  notable  adven- 
ture, however,  was  the  exploitation  of  the  Bagdad 
railway,  of  which  the  ex-Chancellor  speaks  with  en- 
thusiasm :  ^ 

^Imperial  Germany,  p.  ii6. 


130        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

"  This  threw  open  to  German  influence  and  German  enter- 
prise a  field  of  activity  between  the  Mediterranean  Sea  and 
the  Persian  Gulf,  on  the  rivers  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  and 
along  their  banks.  ...  If  one  can  speak  of  boundless  pros- 
pects anywhere,  it  is  in  Mesopotamia." 

As  has  been  shown  in  earlier  pages,  this  stride  to- 
wards the  South-East  was  a  main  factor  in  the  pres- 
ent war. 

At  the  same  time  the  Kaiser  made  a  proclamation 
to  Islam.  When  it  is  remembered  that  his  Moslem 
subjects  may  be  counted  by  hundreds,  it  would  be 
farcical,  were  it  not  pregnant  with  tragic  implica- 
tions : 

"  May  the  Sultan  and  the  three  hundred  million  Mussul- 
mans scattered  over  the  earth  be  assured  that  the  German  Em- 
peror will  always  be  their  friend." 

That  was  the  Irade  of  the  new  seeker  for  the 
riches  of  the  Orient,  the  new  adventurer  into  the 
Asiatic  world,  envious  of  those  who  had  been  there 
for  generations,  making  a  bold  bid  for  recognition  in 
fields  where  at  the  time  he  had  no  footing.  The 
inner  menace  of  this  proclamation  made  at  Damascus 
by  the  Kaiser  in  the  year  1898  is  too  obvious  to  be 
stated  here. 

Excepting  in  Mesopotamia,  the  intrinsic  value  of 
the  new  German  Colonies  was  trifling;  but  they  were 
of  enormous  value  to  German  policy.  They  enabled 
the  Kaiser  to  speak  of  his  "  Colonial  Empire,"  and 
of  the  urgent  necessity  of  building  a  great  fleet  to 
protect  it  from  envious  rivals.  That  there  was  not 
a  nation  in  the  world  which  would  sacrifice  the  lives 
of  a  single  brigade  to  hoist  its  flag  at  Dar-es-Salaam 
or  Swakopmund  did  not  matter;  it  was  enough  for 
the  Kaiser  to  pretend  that  German  Colonies  were 
coveted   by   others   and  that  their   trade   with   the 


THE  GERMAN  NAVY  131 

Fatherland  had  to  be  maintained.  His  estimate  of 
human  credulity  was  quite  accurate.  He  not  only 
persuaded  his  own  people  that  a  huge  navy  was  indis- 
pensable for  their  Imperial  security,  but  he  managed 
to  persuade  a  large  number  of  British  people  as  well. 
Prince  Biilow,  in  a  passage  already  quoted,  has  ex- 
plained how  essential  it  was  not  to  ruffle  British  sus- 
ceptibilities while  the  German  navy  was  in  its  infancy; 
so  the  loud  talk  of  Germany's  Colonial  Empire  and 
the  duty  of  protecting  it  duped  the  British  people 
into  careless  acquiescence  as  it  grew  stronger.  Some 
there  were,  indeed,  who  saw  and  proclaimed  the 
menace  of  German  ship-building,  but  they  made  their 
warning  to  deaf  ears.  Prince  Biilow,  in  his  notable 
book,  quotes  with  point  a  remark  of  the  Daily  Chron- 
icle : 

"  If  the  German  Fleet  had  been  smashed  in  October,  1904, 
we  should  have  had  peace  in  Europe  for  sixtj^  years." 

Millions  of  Pacifists  to-day,  seeing  what  is  now 
forward,  must  regret  that  it  did  not  happen  ten  years 
ago,  if  Germany  was  determined  to  make  war  as  now 
we  know  without  peradventure  she  meant  to  do. 

There  is  nothing  to  be  gained  by  following  the 
German  navy  in  the  making,  or  compiling  tables  of 
strengths  and  classes  of  ships.  It  is  enough  to  say 
that  in  seven  years  the  German  navy  was  already  a 
menace,  and  that  in  seventeen  it  upset  the  calcula- 
tions of  naval  experts  all  over  the  world.  Great 
Britain  had  to  alter  her  standard  of  naval  supremacy 
from  the  two-Power  standard  to  the  two-keel  stand- 
ard, and  from  that  to  the  standard  of  16  to  10;  Ger- 
many's naval  strength  alone  being  the  basis  of  the 
calculation. 

Admiration  for  this  stupendous  effort  cannot  blind 
us  to  the  crime  against  international  equity  of  which 


132        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

it  was  the  product.  The  ultimate  object  of  the  Ger- 
man Government  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  specula- 
tion. It  was  revealed  by  the  German  Chancellor  to 
Sir  Edward  Goschen  on  the  29th  of  July,  19 14. 
Dr.  von  Bethmann-Hollweg  then  told  our  Ambas- 
sador that  if  England  remained  neutral  Germany 
would  not  deprive  France  of  territory,  but  she  could 
not  give  a  similar  undertaking  with  respect  to  French 
Colonies.  It  thus  appears  that  the  German  navy 
was  not  intended  to  attack  England  directly  and  at 
first,  but  was  to  enable  Germany  to  crush  France 
and  win  a  Colonial  Empire  at  her  expense.  After- 
wards? As  to  that  the  German  doctrine  is  on  rec- 
ord: crush  France  first,  and  then  Great  Britain, 
exposed  to  attack  from  across  the  Channel  at  Calais, 
for  which  the  German  legions  are  now  vainly  striv- 
ing, would  be  an  easy  prey. 

It  is  instructive  to  note  how,  as  the  German  octo- 
pus grew  in  strength,  it  began  to  thrust  its  feelers 
into  the  affairs  of  all  the  world.  It  has  been  the 
Kaiser's  aspiration  that  nothing  should  happen  any- 
where without  Germany's  approval.  The  first  mani- 
festations of  this  high  resolve  were  tentative  —  the 
Venezuela  demonstration,  the  Kniger  telegram,  the 
Persian  scheme,  the  Kaiser's  dramatic  visit  to  Mo- 
rocco, to  Jerusalem.  Time  after  time  the  feelers 
were  put  out,  as  preliminary  trials  of  strength,  to  be 
withdrawn  after  the  experiment;  sometimes,  as  at 
Agadir,  with  great  loss  of  prestige.  While  this  was 
going  on  there  were  underground  activities  of  con- 
spiracy and  incitement  to  revolution  started  among 
the  natives  of  India;  among  the  Mussulmans  of 
Egypt,  and  also  among  the  disaffected  elements  of 
South  Africa  which,  as  the  world  knows,  succeeded 
in  fomenting  a  rebellion,  perilous  in  its  promise  and 
proportions,  futile  in  performance.     Its  defeat  has 


THE  POLITICAL  PERIHELION  133 

been  accompanied  by  an  exposure  of  German  con- 
spiracy, which  should  be  evidence  to  neutral  coun- 
tries of  Germany's  long-matured  designs  to  make 
war  and  conquer  the  British  Empire. 

So  the  work  went  on,  and  the  navy  meanwhile 
grew,  until  at  last  the  German  Emperor  was  inspired 
to   proclaim   himself   "  Emperor   of   the   Atlantic." 

Germany's  preparations  were  all  but  complete. 
Her  war-machine  on  land  was  pronounced  fit  as  hands 
could  make  it;  her  navy,  if  still  unable  to  meet  that 
of  England  on  the  open  sea,  was  at  least  able  to 
cripple  her  movements  in  the  unlikely  event  of  her 
hostility;  and  it  was  also  equal  to  any  other  task 
which  might  be  imposed  upon  it.  Two  of  the  three 
sanctions  of  the  new  creed  were  assured.  War 
would  be  an  Advantage,  and  the  Power  was  there; 
but  what  of  the  Opportunity? 

The  questions  of  Power  and  Opportunity,  indeed, 
were  correlative.  Strength  equal  to  one  set  of  con- 
ditions might  be  unequal  to  the  strain  of  another. 
In  a  normal  Europe,  awake  to  Germany's  real  aims, 
it  might  be  doubtful  whether  German  power  was 
equal  to  German  aspirations.  It  was,  therefore, 
necessary  to  wait  for  a  propitious  conjunction  of  the 
political  planets.  This  occurred  in  19 14.  Euro- 
pean conditions  became  normal  then.  A  very 
brief  survey  will  show  how  Germany  came  to  think 
that  in  June,  19 14,  the  moment  had  at  last  come  to 
put  her  fate  to  the  touch.  She  must  indeed  have 
thought  them  extremely  happy  for  her  purpose  to 
have  found  the  cause  of  war  in  a  Slav  question  which, 
being  certain  to  set  Russia  in  a  flame  against  her, 
was  little  likely  to  stir  enthusiasm  in  Italy,  her  part- 
ner in  the  Triple  /Mliance.  F'or  Italy,  having  of- 
fended Turkey  by  invading  Tripoli,  would  hardly 
care  to  offend  the  Slavs  as  well,  especially  as  the  re- 


134        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

suit  of  a  successful  war  would  be  to  make  hated  Aus- 
tria supreme  on  the  Adriatic.  Against  this  Ger- 
many would  naturally  set  the  enthusiasm  of  Austria 
for  a  war  of  revenge  for  the  murder  of  an  able  and 
popular  heir  to  the  throne  of  the  Dual  Monarchy; 
while  she  would  bear  in  mind  the  advanced  age  of 
the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  and  the  very  uncertain 
and  disquieting  consequences  of  his  death.  Looking 
to  the  condition  of  her  possible  opponents,  however, 
she  had,  on  balance,  some  well-founded  reasons  for 
thinking  that  all  was  favourable  to  her  design,  or 
at  least  would  never  be  more  favourable. 

In  South  Eastern  Europe  the  Balkan  States  were 
exhausted  by  the  war  with  Turkey  and  by  subsequent 
internecine  conflict,  which  had  been  secretly  fomented 
by  Germany  and  Austria,  to  secure  the  disruption 
of  the  Balkan  League  and  to  save  Turkey  from  the 
worst  consequences  of  defeat.  Bulgaria,  ruled  by 
a  German  and  antagonistic  to  Serbia,  would  certainly 
not  help  the  latter,  and  might  perhaps  attack  her. 
Greece  was  preoccupied  with  Albania;  and  Rou-. 
mania,  the  one  Balkan  State  emerging  unscathed 
after  19 13,  was  under  the  rule  of  a  Hohenzollern, 
who  might  be  trusted  to  restrain  for  the  time  being 
Roumania's  purposes  as  to  Transylvania. 

Belgium,  where  (it  had  been  determined)  the  first 
blow  must  be  struck,  had  shown  signs  that  she  would 
not  passively  suffer  the  violation  of  her  neutrality. 
She  had  been  making  preparations  to  strengthen  her 
army  and  her  fortresses.  Her  system  of  conscrip- 
tion, however,  had  been  in  force  but  two  years,  her 
army  was  only  in  its  infancy.  To  wait  much  longer 
might  make  the  invasion  of  Belgium  more  difficult. 
It  has  indeed  proved  difficult  enough. 

The  internal  conditions  of  Russia,  where  German 
hopes,  long  encouraged  by  the  immense  influence  of 


CONDITIONS  IN  RUSSIA  135 

German  officials  in  every  department  of  Russian  gov- 
ernment, had  died  at  last  because  of  the  alliance  with 
France  and  England,  were,  as  usual,  somewhat  mys- 
terious and  conjectural.  Socially  and  industrially 
there  were  no  visible  signs  of  any  abatement  of  the 
hostility  of  races  and  classes  or  of  any  decline  in  rev- 
olutionary sentiment;  indeed,  a  serious  strike  was  in 
progress  in  the  summer  of  19 14.  There  were,  how- 
ever, fears  that  the  great  agrarian  and  other  reforms 
might  in  time  produce  greater  social  harmony  in  the 
Tsar's  dominions.  The  internal  conditions  of  Rus- 
sia could  hardly  be  worse,  and  they  might  become 
better.  Also  there  w^ere  reasons  for  believing  that 
the  Russian  Government  would  have  great  difficulty 
in  finding  ready  money  for  a  war.  As  to  her  mili- 
tary position,  Russia  had  recovered  with  great  ra- 
pidity from  her  Manchurian  disaster.  She  had 
learned  a  lesson  from  it;  and  Germany  was  very  well 
aware  that  she  was  building  strategic  railways  and 
reconstructing  her  army  upon  admirable  lines; 
though  the  completeness  of  that  reconstruction  was 
not  suspected,  as  time  and  events  have  proved.  If 
Russia  was  to  be  faced,  no  time  could  be  better  than 
the  present.  Every  month  that  passed  would  weigh 
down  the  scales  against  Germany. 

When  Germany  turned  to  observe  her  western 
rivals  the  omens  of  success  were  still  more  favour- 
able. France  was  in  the  throes  of  political  strife, 
tortured  by  internal  anxieties,  excited  and  dismayed 
by  the  murder  of  M.  Calmette  and  the  resignation 
of  M.  Caillaux.  One  strong  Ministry  had  fallen, 
to  be  succeeded  by  another,  admittedly  a  makeshift. 
The  country  also,  as  a  whole,  was  divided  over  the 
(juestion  of  the  army;  and  although  the  final  decision 
had  been  to  strengthen  it,  the  necessary  steps  to  that 
end  had  hardly  yet  been  taken.     Grave  accusations 


136        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

of  corruption  and  inefficiency,  resulting  in  a  grievous 
deficiency  of  military  equipment,  had  been  made;  and 
there  were  ominous  confessions  of  financial  strin- 
gency. The  French  army,  therefore,  appeared 
badly  prepared  for  emergencies,  while  the  political 
state  of  the  country  was  chaotic.  That  the  French 
would  fight  with  all  the  fire  of  revenge  and  the  cour- 
age of  despair  was  certain;  that  their  resources  would 
be  equal  to  their  valour  was  extremely  doubtful. 
Of  course,  the  struggle  would  be  intensified  by  the 
intervention  of  Russia,  with  which  Germany  was  not 
confronted  In  1870.  Still,  with  France  unready  and 
the  mobilization  of  Russia  notoriously  and  tradi- 
tionally unwieldy,  the  French  armies  could  be  crushed 
and  Paris  taken  before  it  became  necessary  to  meet 
the  slow-moving  armies  of  the  East.  While  on 
land,  the  position  might  not  be  as  favourable  as  in 
1870,  there  was,  however,  a  German  fleet  in  being 
which  would  more  than  redress  the  balance.  Forty- 
four  years  ago  the  small  German  navy  was  pinned 
in  its  harbours;  now  it  could  take  the  sea,  ravage 
the  many  vulnerable  places  on  the  coast  of  France, 
and  destroy  her  commerce. 

In  these  latter  calculations  Germany  had  to  take 
into  account  the  attitude  of  Great  Britain;  but,  ap- 
praising the  conditions  of  that  country,  she  saw  the 
fairest  presage  of  success,  the  most  convincing  signs 
that  the  Day,  to  which  she  had  drunk  so  often,  had 
dawned  at  last.  The  conditions  in  Great  Britain, 
as  Germany  viewed  them,  gave  ample  promise  that 
she  might,  perhaps  of  her  own  choice,  but  more 
assuredly  by  force  of  circumstances,  adopt  a  neutral 
attitude.  They  actually  encouraged  the  fond  belief 
that,  even  if  neutrality  was  impossible,  Britain  would 
prove  powerless  to  give  much  help  to  her  friends 
of  the  Entente,   or  indeed  to  avert  her  own  ruin. 


ENGLAND'S  CRUMBLING  EMPIRE        137 

German  opinion  was  permeated  by  Treitschke's  be- 
lief that  the  British  Empire  was  only  a  bubble  to  be 
pricked.  England  had  shown  no  ability  in  welding 
it  together;  the  waving  of  Union  Jacks  and  the  sing- 
ing of  the  National  Anthem  did  not  connote  sol- 
idarity. The  colossus  which  bestrode  the  world  had 
a  forehead  of  brass  and  feet  of  brittle  clay.  It  was 
an  imposture.  "  A  thing  that  is  wholly  a  sham," 
said  Treitschke  of  England,  "  cannot  In  this  universe 
of  ours  endure  for  ever.  It  may  endure  for  a  day, 
but  its  doom  is  certain,  there  is  no  room  for  it  in  a 
world  governed  by  valour,  by  the  Will  to  Power." 

Nor  were  portents  lacking  that  the  end  of  the 
Empire  was  nearing  without  the  pressure  of  outside 
force  or  attack.  German  publicists  discerned  signs 
of  the  "  centrifugal  tendency  "  of  the  British  Do- 
minions. As  we  now  know,  Germany  had  been  sow- 
ing seeds  of  disloyalty  in  South  Africa,  and  hoped 
to  see  a  bountiful  return.  She  was  also  busy  in 
Ireland  and  with  the  Irish-Americans.  It  was  her 
view  that  in  a  moment  of  enthusiasm  the  Canadian 
Government  had  promised  to  build  battleships;  but 
the  people  had  refused  to  be  led  into  the  adventure, 
or  at  least  would  only  build  Canadian  ships  for  local 
use,  not  British  ships  for  world-uses.  The  Austral- 
asian Colonies  were  grumbling  about  the  neglect  of 
the  Pacific  and  the  falsification  of  promises  by  the 
British  Admiralty.  The  excuse  that  the  British  navy 
was  wanted  nearer  home  only  made  matters  worse; 
the  Dominions  would  hardly  accept  the  doctrine  that 
their  safety  was  to  be  secured  in  the  North  Sea;  de- 
serted by  the  parent,  the  children  would  fend  for 
thcmscK'es. 

The  German  political  scouts  saw,  and  exaggerated 
out  of  all  recognition,  the  discords  between  various 
members    of    the    Imperial    family    throughout    the 


138        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

world.  South  Africa  and  India  were  at  loggerheads 
over  the  question  of  the  British  Indians;  Lord  Har- 
dlnge  had  made  a  speech  In  which  he  championed 
the  Indians  against  the  harsh  action,  the  unfriendly 
legislation  of  another  great  country  In  the  Empire; 
Canada  and  India  were  waxing  warm  over  a  similar 
controversy;  while  the  Imperial  Government  was 
distraught  by  anxiety  and  apparently  powerless  to 
heal  the  quarrel.  India  was  honeycombed  with  se- 
cret societies,  agitators  reviled  the  British  Raj,  even 
independence  was  whispered  in  the  bazaars.  Also 
there  was  Egypt,  chafing  under  British  rule,  its  bud- 
ding democracy  striving  to  burst  into  flower,  its 
Khedive  conspiring  with  the  enemies  of  Lord  Kitch- 
ener. The  wish  becoming  father  to  the  thought, 
Germany  discerned  in  Egypt  the  real  intellectual  in- 
fluences of  Islam,  only  awaiting  a  sign  from  Con- 
stantinople to  stir  up  the  Moslem  world  to  a  holy 
war.  Intrigue  was  doing  its  work,  aided  by  corrup- 
tion; the  emissaries  of  Germany  were  sowing  the 
black  seed  from  the  Delta  to  the  sources  of  the  Nile ; 
and  they  were  confident  of  a  bounteous  harvest.  Ap- 
parently not  in  the  darkest  days  of  1857  was  Eng- 
land's position  so  desperate.  Everywhere,  accord- 
ing to  the  German  field-glasses,  signs  of  disruption 
In  the  Empire  were  visible. 

As  Teuton  eyes  saw  it  all,  things  were  no  better 
at  the  heart  of  the  Empire.  In  the  Teutonic  view 
the  British  army  was  "  contemptible."  Whatever 
traditions  of  glory  it  once  possessed  had  been 
smirched  by  the  South  African  Campaign.  A  quar- 
ter of  a  million  men,  splendidly  equipped,  had  been 
held  at  bay  for  nearly  three  years  by  a  handful  of 
farmers.  In  that  war  British  soldiers  had  surren- 
dered when  only  four  or  five  per  cent,  of  the  fighters 
had  been  actually  shot;  while  the  loss  of  a  few  hun- 


BRITISH  ANTI-MILITARISM  139 

dred  men  In  an  action  plunged  England  Into  the 
depths  of  misery.  The  nation  had  grown  soft. 
Inadequate  as  the  army  had  shown  itself  In  valour 
and  numbers,  yet  it  had  been  still  further  reduced 
by  the  Government  in  power  since  1906.  Was  not 
Germany  assured  by  the  Press  of  England  that  the 
territorial  army  had  never  come  to  Its  full  strength, 
and  was  diminishing  day  by  day!  Even  powerful 
patriotic  plays,  showing  the  horrors  of  Invasion, 
could  not  lure  a  handful  of  this  degenerate  people 
from  football  matches  to  a  couple  of  hours'  drill 
each  week.  Lord  Roberts  was  looked  upon  as  some- 
thing between  a  victim  of  senility  and  a  criminal, 
when  he  advocated,  not  conscription,  but  a  general 
system  of  civil  military  training.  Was  It  not  clear 
that  no  responsible  politician  would  endanger  his 
future  by  advocating  so  unpopular  a  scheme?  Eng- 
land was  the  platform  of  the  most  fantastic  Pacifist 
doctrines.  Many  of  her  most  prominent  public  men 
were  always  Ingeminating  peace  at  any  price.  War 
with  a  European  power  was  regarded  as  unthinkable, 
and  preparation  for  war  was  opposed  to  civic  lib- 
erty. Some  wretched  youths,  who  had  thrown  up 
a  promising  future  in  New  Zealand  rather  than  bow 
to  the  tyranny  of  the  drill-sergeant,  were  paraded  by 
a  leading  journal  In  Trafalgar  Square  as  martyred 
evangelists. 

So  soulless  had  the  British  race  become  (to  the 
German  mind)  that  when  they  saw  their  sovereignty 
of  the  sea  assailed,  and  themselves  threatened  with 
famine,  they  could  not  bring  themselves  to  build 
against  their  rivals.  They  preferred  to  make  pro- 
posals for  a  reduction  of  armaments  and  to  suggest 
a  naval  holiday.  There  were  even  some  who  urged 
that  England  should  disarm  in  order  to  set  a  good 
example  to   other   nations.     Such   a   people,   it  was 


140        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

argued  in  Berlin,  were  in  the  last  degree  unlikely  to 
take  up  arms  in  other  people's  quarrels. 

But  even  if  they  could  pluck  up  sulSlcient  spirit, 
their  political  conditions  and  divisions  would  pre- 
vent them  from  entering  into  war.  Never  in  British 
history  were  the  great  parties  of  the  State  so  bitterly 
opposed  to  one  another;  never  were  they  so  sep- 
arated by  internecine  hatreds.  Antagonism  had 
come  to  the  point  of  civil  war  in  Ireland.  There 
were  a  hundred  thousand  men  in  Ulster  pledged  to 
resist  the  Home  Rule  Bill  by  force,  drilling  openly 
under  the  command  of  British  officers,  smuggling 
in  arms  under  the  nose  of  the  blockading  British 
fleet.  Also  there  were  twice  as  many  Nationalist 
Volunteers  drilling  and  smuggling  arms,  and  resolved 
to  fight  if  Home  Rule  was  not  granted.  There  had 
been  bloodshed  in  the  streets  of  Dublin,  where  sol- 
diers had  fired  on  gun-runners;  the  army  itself  was 
infected  by  schism.  There  had  been  events  at  the 
Curragh,  styled  "  mutiny  "  by  some  prominent  Min- 
isters. At  the  best  these  things  showed  that  the 
army  was  undoubtedly  disaffected.  The  King  him- 
self, appalled  at  the  situation,  had  endeavoured  with- 
out success  to  bring  about  an  accommodation. 

The  German,  high  and  low,  prince  and  plebeian, 
visitors  and  spies,  Krupp's  and  commercial  trav- 
ellers, believed  that  civil  war  in  the  British  isles  was 
imminent  —  a  question  of  weeks  or  days.  Nothing 
but  a  miracle  could  avert  it;  and  that  miracle  would 
involve  the  fall  of  the  Liberal  Ministry.  To  this 
particular  event  Berlin  statesmen  had  looked  forward 
with  apprehension.  "  When  the  Unionists,  with 
their  greater  fixity  of  purpose,  replace  the  Liberals 
at  the  helm,  we  must  be  prepared  for  a  vigorous 
assertion  of  power  by  the  island  Empire,"  wrote  one 
of  their  watchmen  on  the  tower.     Whether  he  was 


THE  HOUR  141 

right  or  wrong  matters  nothing.  He  expressed  the 
German  view,  and  that  view  impelled  Germany  to 
see  in  the  state  of  British  affairs  encouragement  to 
an  opportunity  for  aggression. 

That  Germany  miscalculated;  that  Russia,  better 
prepared  than  was  thought,  would  not  cringe  before 
the  mailed  fist  in  19 14  as  she  did  in  1909;  that 
France  would  not  give  way  as  she  did  in  1905;  that 
Great  Britain  possessed  hidden  resources  of  vigour 
and  unity  which  would  in  emergency  burst  through 
every  paralysing  influence;  that  the  British  Empire 
was  not  a  sham,  but  a  reality;  that  Belgium  valued 
honour  more  than  safety:  all  this  has  been  demon- 
strated. Germany,  however,  saw  the  situation 
through  spectacles  of  her  own  making;  she  tested 
the  ideals  of  other  nations  by  her  own  materialism; 
she  believed  that  the  Hour  had  struck,  and  that  with 
it  had  come  the  man,  the  Hohenzollern,  on  whom 
"  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  had  descended  ";  who  was 
at  last  to  find  his  place  in  the  sun  as  he  had  ever 
held  it  in  the  lime-light.  War  was  to  Germany's 
advantage  now;  by  her  own  efforts  and  the  weak- 
ness of  her  rivals  the  power  for  conquest  was  in  her 
hands;  the  opportunity  only  was  wanted.  That  op- 
portunity was  supplied  by  the  murder  of  the  Arch- 
duke Franz  Ferdinand  at  Serajevo. 


\ 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    CLOUD   IN   THE   EAST 

If  hypnotism  were  an  Implement  of  state-craft,  It 
might  seem   as  though  the  crime  of  Serajevo  was 
"  suggested  "  by  the  war-makers  of  Berlin,  so  ad- 
mirably did  it  serve  their  purpose.     France,  the  old 
enemy,  was  in  arrears  with  military  reform;  she  was 
financially  embarrassed,  and  vexed  by  intestine  trou- 
bles; Germany,  on  the  other  hand,  was  ready  to  the 
last  button  on  the  tunic,  the  last  torpedo  for  her  sub- 
marines, even  to  the  fire-raising  confetti  which  would 
make  arson  a  fine  art.     The  great  guns,  before  which 
the  stoutest  fortresses  would  crumble  into  powder, 
were  concealed  In  the  casemates  of  Essen;  their  em- 
placements were  already  built  in  the  suburban  gar- 
dens of  Antwerp,  Maubeuge  and  elsewhere.     Ger- 
man agents  had  swept  Ireland  clear  of  horses  dur- 
ing the  Spring,  and  had  filled  the  national  granaries 
with  abundant  food  supplies;  German  financiers,  at 
home  and  abroad,  were  ready  at  a  moment's  notice 
to  bring  the  subtle  and  delicate  machinery  of  the 
money  market  into  the  service  of  their  country;  and 
they  did  actually  open  their  financial   campaign  in 
London  during  the  month  of  July.     And  now,  like 
a  god  out  of  the  machine,  came  the  murder  of  the 
heir  to  a  great  throne;  member  of  a  family  whose 
tragedies  rival  those  of  the  Atrldai  and  have  aroused 
the  sympathy  of  the  world  for  the  venerable  chief 
of  the  House  of  Hapsburg.     It  was  beyond  per- 
adventure  that  mankind  would  cry  out  against  the 
assassination  of  a  prince  of  proved  capacity,  of  rep- 

142 


AUSTRO-SERBIAN  RELATIONS  143 

utable  life  and  high  Ideals;  who,  It  had  been  hoped, 
would  save  the  countries  of  the  Dual  Monarchy 
from  disintegration,  and  who  favoured  constitutional 
reform.  Also,  this  crime  had  been  committed  by 
men  of  a  race  stained  by  the  memory  of  an  even 
darker  deed,  and,  because  of  It,  excommunicated  for 
a  time  by  civilized  nations. 

In  one  respect  at  least  German  calculations  were 
accurate.  The  world  was  shocked  at  the  deed  of  the 
28th  of  June.  It  was  a  crime  without  circumstance 
of  extenuation.  The  grievances  between  Austria 
and  Serbia,  however,  have  not  been  all  on  one  side. 
If  Serbia  has  been  a  turbulent  neighbour,  her  turbu- 
lence and  animosit}'  have  had  behind  them  a  great 
and  ambitious  patriotism  and  a  deep  concern  for 
the  welfare  of  the  Serb  population  of  Bosnia,  Herze- 
govina and  Hungary;  and  her  offences  have  been 
largely,  if  not  mainly,  the  products  of  Austrian 
Intolerance,  tyranny  and  oppression.  Again  and 
again  had  Serbia's  natural  aspirations  for  commer- 
cial and  political  expansion  been  thwarted  by  her 
powerful  neighbour.  The  absorption  of  Bosnia- 
Herzegovina,  which  destroyed  the  vision  of  a  greater 
Serbia,  was  bad  enough;  but  to  have  been  arbitrarily 
deprived  of  a  sea-port  on  the  Adriatic,  which  she 
had  fairly  won  by  her  valour,  was  bitterly  worse. 
The  treatment  of  her  fellow-Slavs  in  Croatia  had 
long  exasperated  Serbia;  had  been  a  goad  In  her 
side;  and  she  knew  that  the  sympathy  of  the  outside 
world  had  not  been  denied  her  In  her  Indignation, 
while  Russia  would  give  her  firm  moral  support  at 
least.  The  unprejudiced  historian  will  probably  de- 
cide that,  as  between  Austria  and  Serbia,  the  balance 
of  right  is  on  the  side  of  the  smaller  State.  Still, 
not  all  the  wrongs  which  Serbia  has  suffered  could 
excuse    the    assassination    of    the   Archduke    Franz 


144        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Ferdinand.  It  was  not  only  a  savage  crime,  but  it 
was  aimless  and  unjust;  for  the  victim  was  the  one 
man  of  power  in  his  country  who  most  sympathized 
with  his  future  Slavonic  subjects,  and  was  most  de- 
termined to  do  them  justice.  Europe  was  revolted 
by  the  aimless  injustice  of  the  deed,  as  well  as  by  its 
brutality.  So  late  as  the  27th  of  July,  19 14,  Sir 
Edward  Grey  told  our  Ambassador  in  Paris  that  — 

"  The  dispute  between  Austria  and  Serbia  was  not  one  in 
which  we  felt  called  upon  to  take  a  hand, — " 

while  four  days  earlier  he  had  informed  our  Am- 
bassador in  St.  Petersburg  that  he  did  not  consider 
that  English  opinion  would  or  ought  to  sanction 
going  to  war  over  a  Serbian  quarrel.  Even  Russia 
agreed  that  Austria  was  entitled  to  guarantees  from 
Serbia  for  future  good  behaviour. 

It  is  not  too  late  to  recapture  in  all  its  poignancy 
the  memory  of  that  catastrophe  which  fell  upon  the 
nations  out  of  a  clear  sky.  People  in  most  coun- 
tries, execrating  the  murder  of  the  Archduke,  had 
read  with  sympathy  of  the  sorrow  of  his  people,  and 
had  turned  from  the  account  of  his  midnight  burial 
to  other  happenings  of  sensational  interest  —  the 
trial  of  Madame  Caillaux  and  the  Home  Rule  Con- 
ference at  Buckingham  Palace.  It  was  understood 
that  some  Pan-Serbian  conspiracy  had  been  un- 
earthed; but  as  conspiracies  are  not  uncommon  in 
Balkan  politics  it  was  not  a  sensation  of  compelling 
interest.  Foreign  correspondents  talked  of  activity 
In  the  Chancelleries,  but  the  world  shrugged  Its 
shoulders.  To  the  general  public  diplomatists  are 
men  who  beguile  their  abundant  leisure  by  construct- 
ing mountains  out  of  molehills  with  reprehensible 
toil,  and  by  smoothing  the  mountains  back  into  mole- 
hills with  repentant  and  commendable  skill.     Even 


CALCULATING  WAR  LORDS  145 

the  presentation  of  the  epoch-making  Austrian  Note 
did  not  greatly  agitate  the  pubHc  mind.  Serbia  had 
practically  accepted  most  of  it,  and  she  was  ready 
to  submit  the  unsettled  points  to  arbitration;  while 
Sir  Edward  Grey  had  suggested  a  Conference,  to 
which  France  and  Italy  were  agreed  and  to  which 
Germany  was  said  to  be  favourable.  The  business 
seemed  susceptible  of  easy  accommodation.  Even 
when  the  Share  Market  slumped,  there  were  only  a 
few  chronic  pessimists  who  darkly  hinted  at  deep 
international  trouble.  Fewer  still  had  any  idea  of 
the  feverish  correspondence  between  the  Capitals. 
They  went  about  their  ordinary  business  as  did  the 
citizens  of  Herculaneum  on  the  eve  of  its  destruc- 
tion, conscious  that  there  were  clouds  in  the  sky,  but 
convinced  that  the  hubble-bubble  of  the  diplomatic 
heights  would  pass.  The  whole  Balkan  affair  was, 
after  all,  so  simple.  Serbia  would  be  taught  a  lesson 
in  propriety;  and  there  would  be  an  end  to  it.  From 
their  standpoint  they  were  quite  justified  in  their 
view:  that  would  have  been  the  end  of  It  had  not 
the  ambitious  and  exultant  Camarilla  of  Berlin  de- 
termined otherwise. 

Those  who  accuse  the  German  War  Lords  of 
recklessness  In  provoking  a  European  war,  and  folly 
In  selecting  as  its  cause  a  Balkan  question,  which 
might  alienate  Italian  sympathy,  do  Inadequate  jus- 
tice to  that  formidable  circle.  Whatever  demerits 
may  be  theirs,  recklessness  Is  not  one  of  them.  On 
the  contrary,  the  cold  calculation  of  their  unchang- 
ing purposes  is  one  of  their  most  repellent  charac- 
teristics. As  Carlyle  said  of  Goethe,  their  sky  Is  a 
vault  of  Ice.  They  had,  of  course,  no  desire  for  a 
general  war;  they  proposed  to  devour  their  rivals 
one  by  one,  as  one  sucks  the  leaves  of  an  artichoke. 
For  this  purpose  nothing  better  could  be  found  than 


146        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

a  quarrel  which  would  command  natural  sympathy 
for  their  Injured  ally;  which  would  excite  Western 
Europe  but  little,  and  England  least  of  all,  what- 
ever might  be  the  effect  upon  Russia. 

But  there  were  other  reasons,  more  direct  and 
potent,  which  made  a  Balkan  question  peculiarly 
convenient.  It  would  be  an  excuse  for  a  punitive 
expedition,  with  the  consequent  aggrandisement  of 
Germanic  influence  in  Southeastern  Europe;  and  It 
would  furnish  the  opportunity,  when  desired,  to 
launch  the  larger  war-scheme.  It  might,  Indeed, 
offend  Italy  to  see  an  extension  of  Austrian  influence 
on  the  Adriatic;  but  Italy  was  a  doubtful  ally  at  the 
best;  and  her  displeasure  would  be  more  than  bal- 
anced by  Austrian  gratitude  and  Austria's  subsequent 
and  complete  subserviency.  Valuable,  Indeed  essen- 
tial, however,  as  was  Austrian  loyalty  to  the  Triple 
Alliance,  there  were  other  advantages,  not  less  Im- 
portant, to  be  gained  by  the  punishment  of  Serbia 
and  the  shattering  of  her  integrity. 

Of  all  the  smaller  Slav  States  Serbia  is  the  most 
formidable,  of  all  the  Balkan  States  it  has  been  the 
least  friendly  to  German  interests.  With  her  out  of 
the  way,  or  weakened  by  a  judicious  partition  of  por- 
tions of  her  territory  between  Austria,  Roumania 
and  Bulgaria,  the  two  latter  States  being  ruled  by 
German  dynasties,  Teutonic  Influence  would  be  dom- 
inant from  the  Danube  to  the  Golden  Horn,  and  a 
solid  wall  would  be  built  against  Russian  designs  and 
Influence.  The  great  Slav  Power  would  be  ef- 
fectually barred  from  the  Mediterranean.  True, 
Austria  had  renounced  all  designs  of  territorial  ag- 
grandisement at  the  expense  of  Serbia;  but,  as  Dr. 
Dillon,  than  whom  there  is  no  more  alert  authority 
in  Eastern  politics,  Is  careful  to  point  out,  she  had 
renounced   them   for   herself   alone.     She   had   not 


GERMANY  LOOKS  SOUTH  EAST         147 

renounced  them  on  behalf  of  the  other  Balkan  States, 
nor  would  her  self-denying  ordinance  deprive  her, 
in  good  time,  of  laying  hands  on  Salonika. 

So  much  for  Austria.  But  what  of  Germany? 
It  was  not  altruism,  or  the  vision  of  what  might 
come  in  the  still  distant  future  of  a  Central  Euro- 
pean Federation,  which  drove  her  to  make  this  Bal- 
kan question  her  own.  With  the  Eastern  Mediter- 
ranean dominated  by  Teutonic  influence,  her  plans 
of  aggression  in  Morocco  would  be  carried  out  in 
a  vacuum,  when  France  was  crushed;  as  crushed  she 
must  be  at  the  most  convenient  moment.  But  there 
was  a  more  immediate  and  valuable  advantage  to 
be  gained  by  bringing  Southeastern  Europe  under 
the  Germanic  yoke.  Through  the  Balkans  lay  the 
straight  road  to  the  Hellespont  and  Asia  Minor; 
to  those  regions  on  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  of 
which  Prince  Billow  has  written  with  such  enthu- 
siasm; to  the  proud  position  of  Protector  of  Islam; 
to  the  very  citadel  of  England's  Eastern  Empire. 
To  the  German,  dreaming  of  expansion  in  the  rich 
plains  of  Mesopotamia,  of  advance  to  the  Southern 
waters  of  Asia,  the  reversion  of  the  isles  of  Greece 
to  their  ancient  nationality  was  unendurable;  for 
Greece  is  strongly  Anglophile  and  fiercely  antago- 
nistic to  the  Turk.  She  might  even  in  time  regain 
a  hold  upon  some  of  her  Asiatic  possessions.  This 
undesirable  development  would  be  thwarted  by  a 
skilful  revision  of  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest.  Thus 
history  repeated  itself.  Just  as,  five  hundred  years 
before  the  Christian  era,  the  politics  of  Asia  Minor 
sent  Darius  and  Xerxes  into  Macedonia  and  Ilcllas, 
so  to-day  the  politics  of  Asia  Minor  induced  William 
of  Germany  to  prosecute  an  aggressive  policy  In 
Southeastern  Europe. 

There  were,  then,  many  advantages  to  be  gained 


148        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

by  making  the  murder  of  the  Archduke  Franz  Ferdi- 
nand a  cause  of  war.  Some  were  positive  —  the 
check  to  Russian  influence,  the  satisfaction  and  ful- 
filment of  Austrian  policy,  the  furtherance  of  Ger- 
many's Asiatic  ambitions;  others  were  negative,  but 
not  less  important.  Russia  might  stand  aside,  as 
she  did  in  1909;  and  if  she  did  not  still  she 
was  unready  for  war.  Even  were  she  better  pre- 
pared than  was  thought,  the  cause  of  quarrel  was  not 
unlikely  to  alienate  the  sympathies  of  her  Western 
Allies,  neither  of  whom  was  in  a  position  to  make 
war  unless  compelled  to  do  so.  With  all  this  in 
mind,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  advisers  of  the 
Kaiser  resolved  to  strike. 

It  may  be  objected  that  this  is  only  theory;  and 
that  Germany  is  not  to  be  condemned  on  plausible 
enemy  theories  credited  to  her,  as  Thucydides  em- 
bodied his  own  ideas  in  the  speeches  of  Pericles  and 
the  Corcyrean  Embassy.  These  theories,  however, 
do  fit  in  to  a  nicety  with  what  Germany  was  supposed 
to  want,  and  with  what  she  actually  did;  for,  as  will 
be  seen,  hers  was  the  master-mind  and  hers  the  guid- 
ing hand  throughout  the  month  of  July,  19 14.  She 
has,  indeed,  confessed  as  much.  In  the  book  The 
Truth  about  Germany,  prepared  for  the  American 
public,  which  Is  not  a  compilation  of  official  de- 
spatches, but  a  bowdlerized  and  manipulated  state- 
ment of  the  German  case,  there  are  some  remarkable 
admissions  made  by  the  distinguished  committee  who 
edited  it  and  were  responsible  for  it. 

We  are  informed  in  those  pages  that  when  Austria 
apprised  Germany  of  her  view  of  the  situation  and 
asked  for  Germany's  opinion,  she  was  given  "  a  com- 
pletely free  hand  in  her  action  towards  Serbia." 
There  is  no  evidence  whatever  that  Germany  ever 
counselled  such  prudence  and  moderation  as  would 


THE  CHRONOLOGY  OF  A  MONTH       149 

avert  a  great  war.  On  the  contrary,  Germany  avows 
that  she  was  "  perfectly  aware  that  a  possible  war- 
like attitude  of  Austria-Hungary  against  Serbia 
might  bring  Russia  upon  the  field,"  and  yet  she  told 
Austria  "  with  all  her  heart,"  that  "  any  action  .  .  . 
would  meet  with  our  approval." 

Later,  when  Russia  was  willing  to  retire  from  the 
field  if  the  Austro-Serbian  quarrel  was  referred  to 
England,  France,  Germany  and  Italy,  Germany  was 
the  one  Power  which  refused  to  consent.  And 
finally,  when  at  the  eleventh  hour,  Russia  and  Aus- 
tria were  advancing  towards  agreement,  and  when 
Count  Szaparay,  the  Austrian  Ambassador  at  Petro- 
grad,  had  agreed  to  mediation  on  the  main  points 
at  issue  between  Austria  and  Serbia,  Germany  bolted 
the  door  on  peace  by  declaring  war  with  Russia. 
Germany  has  been  throughout  the  moving  spirit, 
Austria  no  more  than  the  subservient  but  no  less 
culpable  friend  and  abettor. 

Before  proceeding,  however,  to  fix  responsibility 
on  the  proper  shoulders  by  an  analysis  of  the  nego- 
tiations preceding  the  war,  it  will  be  well  to  survey 
events  in  a  broad  perspective. 

Two  dates  at  once  attract  attention  —  the  28th  of 
June  and  the  28th  of  July,  19 14.  On  the  first  date 
the  Archduke  and  his  wife  were  murdered;  on  the 
latter  Austria  broke  off  diplomatic  relations  with 
Serbia.  How  were  the  intervening  thirty  days  em- 
ployed? The  answer  is  significant  and  instructive. 
Twenty-five  days  were  occupied  by  police  officials  in 
investigating  the  circumstances  of  the  crime;  five  — 
only  five  —  were  devoted  to  correspondence  between 
Vienna  and  Belgrade.  Negotiations  on  which  hung 
the  issues  of  peace  and  war,  and  that  —  as  was  soon 
apparent  —  a  war  which  would  change  the  face  of  a 
Continent  and  vitally  affect  the  destinies  of  the  world, 


150        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

were  crowded  into  one  hundred  and  twenty  hours. 
That,  moreover,  Is  not  all,  or  even  the  worst.  On 
the  fateful  28th  of  July,  the  Serbian  Minister  at 
Belgrade  handed  the  Serbian  reply  to  the  Austrian 
Ambassador.  It  Is  a  lengthy  document,  conceding 
much;  modifying  some  points;  In  others  suggesting 
international  arbitration;  In  one  instance  asking  for 
legal  proofs  of  charges  against  accused  persons  — ■ 
altogether  a  document  warranting  calm  and  delib- 
erate consideration.  Yet  Baron  von  Giesl,  the  Aus- 
trian Minister,  digested  It,  returned  to  his  Legation, 
packed  his  luggage,  removed  the  archives  and  was 
seated  In  the  train  within  forty  minutes.  This  then 
Is  the  time-table  for  July:  Secret  Police  enquiry 
twenty-five  days ;  diplomatic  Intercourse  one  hundred 
and  twenty  hours;  considering  the  Serbian  reply  and 
removal  of  Legation,  forty  minutes  ! 

It  has  been  urged  by  Count  Albert  Mensdorff,  the 
Austrian  Ambassador  in  London,  that  Serbia  might 
have  done  something  in  those  thirty  days  to  pro- 
pitiate Austria  and  justify  herself  by  a  voluntary 
offer  to  Institute  an  enquiry  Into  the  crime.  It  is 
not  quite  easy  to  see  how  she  could  have  done  so. 
Certainly  it  would  have  been  her  bounden  duty  to 
take  the  initiative  had  the  crime  been  committed  in 
her  own  territory,  or  by  her  own  subjects.  It  was, 
however,  committed  by  Austrian  subjects  In  an  Aus- 
trian city.  Had  Serbia  expressed  deep  contrition, 
so  acknowledging  guilt,  and  made  offers  of  investi- 
gation, the  act  would  have  been  described  as  that  of 
a  criminal,  attempting  to  compound  his  offence,  seek- 
ing by  transparent  hypocrisy  to  escape  Its  proper  con- 
sequences. 

It  is  said,  perhaps  with  truth,  that  certain  Serbian 
state  officials  were  concerned  In  the  atrocious  crime; 
but  Serbia  was  not  officially  aware  of  that  accusa- 


SIGNIFICANT  SECRECY  151 

tion  until  the  24th  of  July.  The  Information  had 
been  elicited  from  the  assassins  —  not  very  reputable 
or  reliable  witnesses  —  in  the  course  of  a  secret  in- 
vestigation, from  which  Serbia,  in  common  with  the 
rest  of  Europe,  was  excluded.  When  the  names  of 
implicated  Serbians  were  mentioned,  the  Serbian  Gov- 
erniT.ent  promised  to  punish  them,  with  the  very 
proper  proviso  that  proofs  of  their  guilt  should  be 
forthcoming.  It  Is  hard  to  see  what  more  any  Gov- 
ernment could  have  done. 

There  is  absolutely  no  evidence  that  the  Serbian 
Government  had  foreknowledge  of,  or  complicity 
with,  the  crime.  The  secrecy  of  the  Austrian  pro- 
ceedings alone  precludes  such  a  consideration. 
Could  Austria  openly  have  fixed  even  a  vague  suspi- 
cion upon  the  Serbian  Government,  how  readily 
would  she  have  done  It!  The  whole  world  would 
have  been  summoned  to  Serajevo  to  see  the  unfold- 
ing of  the  hideous  plot.  Instead  of  that,  the  trial 
was  held  within  closed  doors,  the  Press  was  excluded; 
nothing  reached  the  public  without  the  sanction  of 
the  official  censors.  What  little  did  leak  out  went 
to  show  that  the  deed  was  committed  by  young  men 
who  grafted  anarchical  doctrines  upon  Pan-Serbian 
enthusiasms;  who  were  not  only  set  to  see  Serbia 
greater,  but  were  moved  to  avenge  the  tyranny  un- 
der which  their  fellow-Slavs  were  groaning  in  Bosnia- 
Herzegovina  and  Croatia. 

If,  In  murder,  the  question  of  motive  be  important, 
it  is  Austria,  not  Serbia,  that  should  stand  arraigned 
for  the  assassination  of  the  Grand  Duke.  Serbia  had 
nothing  to  gain,  but  everything  to  lose  by  It.  She 
had  her  grievances  against  Austria;  but  she  was  not 
insane  enough  to  think  they  could  be  avenged  by 
the  murder  of  the  one  man  In  Austria  who  had  stood 
her  friend  In  19 13.     She  could  not  hope  to  repair 


152        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

the  damage  which  Austria  had  done  her  In  the  past 
by  giving  her  the  best  excuse  for  inflicting  still  greater 
damage.  Just  recovering  from  a  devastating  war, 
she  would  not  Invite  another,  with  a  neighbour  ten- 
fold stronger  than  herself.  She  was  engaged  In  im- 
portant railway  negotiations,  and  was  making  ar- 
rangements with  Montenegro  of  vital  Interest  to  her 
future.  She  would  hardly  choose  that  moment  for 
incurring  the  risk  of  war  by  participation  In  a  crime 
which  would  alienate  mankind. 

If  we  turn  to  Austria,  we  shall  find  a  far  readier 
explanation  of  the  death  of  the  Archduke.  Revenge 
is  the  oldest  motive  of  crime  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  and  this  would  appear  to  have  been  a  crime 
of  revenge.  This  Is  not  the  place  to  tell  the  story 
of  the  ten  million  Slavonic  subjects  of  the  Dual  Mon- 
archy, nor  would  It  be  a  pleasant  story  to  tell  if  it 
were  the  place.  It  is  a  tale  of  repression  and  terror- 
ism which  would  have  disgusted  Jeffreys;  of  perjury 
and  corruption  which  would  have  turned  the  stomach 
of  Titus  Oates.  The  Press  was  persecuted,  political 
leaders  were  threatened,  the  law  courts  were  de- 
bauched, the  sanctity  of  the  ballot  boxes  was  Invaded, 
and  when  all  this  failed  the  Constitution  itself  was 
suspended.  It  came  at  last  to  this  that  the  very 
school-children  revolted  and  refused  to  be  taught  un- 
der such  a  reign  of  terror.  Were  there  no  grounds 
for  vengeance  here,  no  materials  for  crime,  even  if 
it  took  the  blind,  hateful,  and  indefensible  form  of 
murder? 

The  most  that  can  be  alleged  against  Serbia  is 
this  —  that  to  her  were  turned  the  eyes  of  Austria's 
Serbian  helots;  that  she  stood  for  their  racial  ideals; 
that,  so  long  as  she  remained,  hope  for  the  future 
was  not  dead.  That  Serbia  was  not  Ignorant  of 
this  sentiment  is  not  to  be  Imagined;  to  think  that 


PLOT  AGAINST  SERBIA  153 

she  had  no  visions  of  a  day  —  as  Germany  had  vi- 
sions of  a  "  Day  " —  when  Bosnia,  Herzegovina  and 
Croatia  might,  as  the  result  of  a  great  European  up- 
heaval, be  united  with  Serbia  and  form  an  important 
State,  is  to  suppose  her  more  than  human.  But  to 
charge  her  with  seeking  to  attain  such  ends  by  the 
shameful  murder  of  an  upright  prince,  reputedly 
friendly  to  her,  is  to  brand  her  as  imbecile. 

Nevertheless  that  is  what  Austria  set  out  to  do, 
and  has  done.  Without  accepting  or  suggesting  the 
dreadful  suspicion  that  the  murder  of  the  Archduke 
was  committed  at  the  instance,  or  at  least  with  the 
tacit  connivance  of  any  government,  Serbian  or 
other;  it  is  clear  that  Austria  resolved  to  make  the 
crime  an  excuse  for  depriving  Serbia  of  her  position 
as  an  independent  State  and  as  the  rallying-point  of 
Pan-Serbian  aspirations.  She  had  been  long  prepar- 
ing to  seize  on  such  an  opportunity;  and  she  had  re- 
doubled her  preparations  of  recent  years,  in  the  hope 
that  the  chance  w-ould  come  as  a  result  of  a  Balkan 
war.  It  is  notorious  that  during  the  first  Balkan 
war  in  19 12  Austria  was  weighing  the  chances  of 
a  conflict  with  Serbia  and  Russia;  and  that  her  Gov- 
ernment was  studiously  inflaming  the  public  mind 
with  stories  of  the  shameful  maltreatment  of  the 
Austrian  Consul  Prochaska  at  Prizren  —  stories 
which  proved  to  be  wholly  imaginary. 

But  the  plot  dates  back  in  reality  to  1909.  In 
that  year  the  famous  High  Treason  Trial  took  place 
at  Agram,  w^hcn  certain  Croats  were  accused  of  a 
treasonable  Pan-Serbian  propaganda.  Soon  after- 
wards. Dr.  Friedjung,  the  historian,  published  an 
article  in  which  he  asserted  that  the  leaders  of  the 
Croatian  movement  were  in  the  pay  of  the  Serbian 
Government;  and  that  in  fact  Serbia  was  promoting 
and  subsidizing  revolution   in  Austria.     The   docu- 


154        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

ments  on  which  this  charge  was  based  were  given  to 
him  by  the  Austrian  Foreign  Office. 

Had  these  documents  been  genuine,  Austria  would 
have  had  cause  for  war;  but  they  were  not  genuine. 
Dr.  Friedjung  was  sued  for  Hbel,  and  it  was  estab- 
lished by  proofs  which  not  even  an  Austrian  Court 
could  ignore,  that  the  documents  were  forgeries,  con- 
cocted in  the  Austrian  Legation  at  Belgrade.  The 
Austrian  Minister  in  Belgrade,  Count  Forgach,  was 
openly  accused  in  the  Austrian  Parliament  of  being 
a  forger  and  guilty  of  the  acts  of  an  Agent  Provoca- 
teur, one  of  the  most  odious  offences  of  which  man 
can  be  guilty. 

In  most  countries  such  a  charge  would  be  enough 
to  drive  a  man  from  public  life,  or  in  some  indulgent 
societies  to  consign  him  to  a  sphere  offering  no  scope 
for  such  peculiar  energies.  Not  so  in  Austria. 
Though  almost  incredible,  it  is  true  that  Count  For- 
gach was  afterwards  selected  to  be  one  of  the  chief 
directors  of  Balkan  policy  at  the  Foreign  Office  in 
Vienna.  Within  a  few  years  of  his  appointment, 
Austria  has  made  war  upon  Serbia,  on  grounds  con- 
structed by  a  hidden  inquisition,  and  of  which,  when 
besought  to  do  so,  she  gave  no  proof  whatever. 
There  is  a  curious  and  sinister  likeness  between  the 
methods  of  1909  and  19 14,  which  must  strike  even 
the  most  careless  observer. 

Count  Forgach  was  engaged  in  congenial  work 
during  those  eventful  and  historical  thirty  days  imme- 
diately before  this  war.  There  arc  ugly  hints  of 
what  preceded  them;  for  the  present  purpose  It  Is 
enough  to  consider  the  Incidents  following  upon  the 
death  of  the  Archduke.  What  happened  Is  briefly 
this.  A  man,  notoriously  without  scruple,  set  him- 
self to  make  out  a  case  against  Serbia.  It  took  him 
twenty-five  days  to  do  it,  working  like  a  mole  In  the 


COUNT  FORGACH  SUCCEEDS  155 

police  cells  at  Serajevo.  These  days  were  occupied 
in  drawing  the  indictment  against  Serbia.  The  ac- 
cused was  given  forty-eight  hours  in  which  to  plead 
guilty  and  be  sentenced.  In  forty  minutes  the  judge 
hea^-d  the  prisoner's  reply,  gave  it  mature  considera- 
tion, returned  to  his  home,  packed  up  his  belongings 
and  was  on  his  way  to  the  railway  station.  It  was 
not  for  nothing  that  Count  Forgach's  previous  per- 
formances had  been  rewarded,  and  that  he  had  been 
encouraged  to  try  again.  Once  before  he  had  failed ; 
this  time  he  succeeded. 

The  case  against  Austria  is  deadly,  from  the  cir- 
cumstances, considerations  and  evidence  already 
given;  but  that  the  murder  of  Franz  Ferdinand  only 
gave  Austria  courage  to  do  what  she  had  resolved 
to  do  in  19 13  if  she  secured  adequate  support,  is  be- 
yond question;  and  we  shall  presently  offer  the  proofs 
of  it.  It  emboldened  her  to  cross  the  Rubicon,  in 
which  she  had  already  dipped  her  feet  only  to  shrink 
back  when  she  found  the  water  very  cold. 

During  the  whole  of  the  pre-war  negotiations  we 
find  Austria  and  Germany  manoeuvring  for  a  moral 
vantage-ground;  Austria  posing  as  an  aggrieved 
Power,  righteously  resolved  to  punish  a  grave  offence 
and  to  protect  herself  from  criminal  intrigues;  Ger- 
many posing  as  a  loyal  friend,  whose  loyalty  was 
abused  by  hostile  States,  and  made  the  implement 
by  which  she  was  treacherously  driven  into  war. 
Since  the  war  began,  however,  the  line  of  defence 
has  been  modified.  Comparatively  little  is  heard 
about  Austria's  grievance  against  Serbia,  but  very 
much  is  heard  about  the  complete  innocence  of  Ger- 
many. The  semi-official  apology  for  Germany's  ac- 
tion. The  Truth  about  Germany,  issued  under  the 
authority  of  Prince  Billow  and  an  imposing  commit- 
tee of  eminent  Teutons,  begins  with  the  bold  asser- 


156        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

tlon  that  Germany's  love  of  peace  is  so  strong  as 
to  be  an  inborn  and  integral  part  of  the  people.  In- 
dividual writers  of  light  and  leading  in  Germany 
never  cease  harping  on  that  theme.  In  their  recitals 
Germany  had  no  aggressive  designs,  no  desire  for 
territorial  aggrandisement,  no  thought  of  war,  no 
aim  or  object  but  to  remain  at  peace  with  all  man- 
kind. True,  she  went  to  war,  but  unwillingly. 
True,  she  broke  off  negotiations  with  Russia  and 
France,  and  struck  the  first  blow  at  Belgium ;  but  she 
only  did  it  as  a  lonely  wayfarer  might  take  the 
initiative  against  footpads  manoeuvring  for  advan- 
tage. Never  were  nations  so  misunderstood  and 
maligned  as  the  Teutonic  Powers;  never  in  history 
was  there  a  blacker  treachery  than  that  by  which 
these  pacific  peoples  were  lured  and  goaded  into 
strife  by  the  machinations  of  France,  of  Russia,  and, 
above  all,  of  Great  Britain! 

How  comes  it,  then,  that  Austria  was  planning 
war  against  Serbia  a  year  before  the  murder  of  the 
Archduke  Franz  Ferdinand?  That  hidden  and 
hideous  fact;  that  black,  premeditated  crime,  without 
excuse;  that  intended  sacrifice  of  a  small  nation 
which  dared  to  achieve  freedom  and  maintain  it 
against  tyranny  and  force,  was  revealed  to  the  world 
by  Signor  Giolitti  in  the  Italian  Parliament  last  De- 
cember. In  19 13,  Signor  Giolitti  was  Prime  Min- 
ister of  Italy.  On  the  13th  of  August  of  that  year, 
the  Marquis  di  San  Giuliano,  his  Foreign  Minister, 
telegraphed  to  him  while  he  was  absent  from  Rome 
that  he  had  been  informed  by  Austria  of  her  inten- 
tion to  attack  Serbia  as  a  defensive  precaution;  that 
Austria  had  addressed  a  similar  statement  to  Ger- 
many; and  that  she  invoked  the  assistance  of  Italy 
under  the  terms  of  the  Triple  Alliance.  What  was 
Italy's  answer? 


SIGNOR  GIOLITTI  UNFOLDS  A  TALE     157 

"  Both  the  Marquis  di  San  Giuliano  and  I,"  said  Signor 
Giolitti,  "  denied  such  an  attack  to  be  a  casus  foederis,  and  I 
told  the  Marquis  di  San  Giuliano  to  tell  Austria  so  in  the 
most  formal  manner,  and  to  urge  Germany  to  dissuade  her 
from  a  most  dangerous  adventure.  This  was  done,  and  our 
Allies  agreed  with  us." 

No  words  can  exaggerate  the  significance  of  this 
amazing  disclosure.  It  should  be  ever  present  in  the 
minds  of  students  of  the  pre-war  negotiations,  be- 
cause it  converts  much  that  would  otherwisebe  in- 
ferential into  matters  of  certainty.  It  explains  the 
truculence  of  the  Austrian  Note  to  Serbia  and  the 
contemptuous  indifference  with  which  the  Serbian 
reply  was  treated.  It  shows  the  nature  of  the  ''  free 
hand  "  which  Germany  gave  to  Austria,  and  it  dis- 
pels the  mystery  hanging  over  the  alleged  German 
efforts  to  soften  the  rigour  of  Austria's  attitude. 
Indeed,  at  every  turn  and  twist  of  the  negotiations 
we  find  the  traces  of  that  resolve  of  Austria  "  to 
teach  Serbia  a  lesson  "  which  she  had  formulated  in 
19 13,  but  had  deferred  to  a  more  convenient  oppor- 
tunity, to  that  time  more  suited  to  Germany's  pur- 
poses, when  the  Kiel  Canal  would  be  opened  and  a 
better  pretext  for  war  would  be  found.  Certainly 
the  incident  accounts  for  the  notices  of  mobilization 
to  Austrian  reservists  oversea  within  forty-eight 
hours  of  the  Archduke's  death.  It  explains  also 
why,  in  19 14,  Italy  declined  to  see  in  the  action  of 
Serbia  such  aggression  as  would  entitle  her  Allies 
of  the  Triple  Alliance  to  claim  her  support.  She 
knew  too  much. 

Finally,  Signor  Giolitti's  disclosure  dissipates  once 
and  for  all  the  theory,  so  sedulously  propagated, 
that  Germany  and  Austria  are  injured  innocents, 
dragged  by  the  unscrupulous  Entente  into  courses 
abhorrent  to  their  Sunday-School  doctrines  and  their 


158        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

own  unsophisticated  pacifism.  The  plain  truth  is 
that  Austria  and  Germany  appealed  to  Europe  un- 
der false  pretences  in  19 14.  Shamelessly  cloaking 
the  black  purposes  and  designs  of  19 13,  carried  on 
to  19 14,  they  succeeded  in  having  the  Powers  ne- 
gotiate in  ignorance  of  them.  Had  England,  France 
and  Russia  known  what  had  been  contemplated  In 

19 13,  there  would  have  been  shorter  parleying  with 
the  German  States.  They  would  not  have  waited 
until  July  25th  to  express  their  views;  they  would 
have  had  no  illusions;  there  would  have  been  no 
half  measures.  Sir  Edward  Grey  knew  nothing  of 
Austria's  proposal  to  Italy  until  Signor  Giolltti  re- 
vealed it.  If  he  had  known,  it  may  be  that  when 
M.  Sazonoff  asked  him  to  declare  Britain's  solidarity 
with  Russia,  he  would  not  have  refused.  He  cer- 
tainly would  not  have  asked  Germany  to  plead  with 
Austria.  A  stronger,  firmer  tone  might  perchance 
have   dissuaded  the   Germanic  Alhes   from  war   in 

19 14,  as  Italy's  refusal  had  done  a  year  before; 
though  it  is  not  a  likely  supposition,  and  has  only 
to  support  It  Herr  von  Bethmann-HoUweg's  hys- 
terical surprise  and  agitation  when  he  learned  from 
Sir  Edward  Goschen  that  England  would  fight. 
However  that  may  be,  this  Is  sure,  that  in  July,  19 14, 
Germany  and  Austria  were  determined  on  war;  and 
war  they  have  on  terms  and  with  results  unexpected 
by  them. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

BRITISH    POLICY,    EUROPEAN    AND    COLONIAL 

Having  reviewed  the  various  influences  which  have 
for  many  years  been  moulding  German  policy;  hav- 
ing glanced  at  the  events  in  Southeastern  Europe 
which  have  made  those  smouldering  causes  flame 
into  war;  it  remains  to  enquire  briefly  what  course 
England  had  been  pursuing  throughout  the  last  gen- 
eration. Russia  and  France  may  be  passed  by  for 
two  reasons:  because  the  justification  of  their  action 
may  be  left  to  their  own  spokesmen,  official  and 
otherwise;  also  because  Great  Britain  has  been  rep- 
resented by  the  enemy  as  the  villain  of  the  piece. 
Treachery  and  perfidy  are  the  least  of  the  crimes 
of  which  she  is  accused  in  the  Potsdam  court  of 
morals.  The  world  is  informed  that  she  has  long 
been  planning  a  general  war,  with  the  viciously  sordid 
intention  of  destroying  a  great  commercial  rival;  of 
securing  to  herself  beyond  assault  her  vast  terri- 
tories, mostly  acquired  by  fraud,  and  of  which  she 
makes  no  proper  use.  For  this  purpose,  we  are 
told,  and  with  an  army  of  two  hundred  thousand 
men,  she  seized  the  Serbian  crisis  as  an  excuse  for 
waging  war  on  the  Continent  of  Europe  against  a 
nation  with  millions  of  trained  soldiers  and  many 
great  armies.  Callous  to  the  sufferings  she  would 
cause,  she  prodded  Russia  into  mobilization,  fright- 
ened France  into  action,  and,  for  her  own  base  ends, 
did  not  hesitate  to  lure  helpless  Belgium  to  destruc- 
tion. 

It  is  averred  by  the  heroes  of  Aerschot,  Dlnant, 
159 


i6o        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Malines  and  Louvaln,  who  destroyed  men,  women 
and  children  non-combatants  and  mercilessly  slew 
thirteen  priests  in  one  diocese  alone, ^  that  this  stark 
outrage  on  mankind  is  only  the  climax  of  Great  Brit- 
ain's long  career  as  pirate,  highwayman  and  inter- 
national bully.  The  pious  framers  of  the  policy  of 
*' frightfulness  " ;  of  organized  official  atrocity  on 
a  huge  scale  and  with  scientific  precision  and  pre- 
arrangement;  declare  that  Great  Britain  has  not  only 
been  the  main  obstacle  to  the  spread  of  a  great  sav- 
ing Kiiltur,  but  had  become  the  one  permanent  men- 
ace to  the  world's  peace.  The  arraignment  contains 
the  painful  revelation  that  there  Is  no  international 
immorality  which  she  would  not  commit  to  gain  her 
own  ends.  No  doubt  before  the  war  is  over,  Ger- 
many will  announce  that  Great  Britain  instigated  the 
murder  o-f  Franz  Ferdinand. 

It  is,  however,  true  that  in  former  days  Germans 
of  great  authority  admitted  that  England,  with  her 
maritime  dominance,  was  a  not  unimportant  factor 
In  keeping  the  peace  of  the  world;  some  even  agreed 
quite  benevolently  that  the  Entente,  by  counter- 
balancing the  Alliance,  served  the  same  end.  All 
that  Is  forgotten,  or  else  is  abandoned  as  false  theory, 
refuted  by  the  events  of  19 14.  Now  it  is  declared 
that  the  events  of  July  and  August,  19 14,  proved 
England's  love  of  peace  to  be  in  keeping  with  the 
extent  to  which  her  sea  power  remained  unmenaced; 
and  that  her  adhesion  to  the  Triple  Entente  was 
only  a  continuation  of  her  old  policy  of  getting  some- 
one else  to  fight  her  battles  for  her  on  the  Con- 
tinent, while  she  kept  the  shop  open  at  home  behind 
dark  walls  of  water  and  steel. 

In  the  study  of  events  immediately  preceding  this 

1  See  Pastoral  letter  of  Cardinal  Mercier,  Archbishop  of  Malines 
and  Primate  of  Belgium. 


COLONISATION  BY  DISCOVERY  i6i 

war  it  may  be  well  to  Inquire  briefly  If  there  Is  any 
foundation  for  the  charge  that  Britain  has  really 
been  a  menace  to  peace ;  and  whether  her  steadfast 
policy  has  been  a  course  of  subterranean  effort  to 
stir  up  strife  among  the  nations  for  her  own  ad- 
vantage. The  British  are  a  fighting  people.  Were 
it  not  so  they  would  not  be  where  they  are  to-day. 
They  are  not,  however,  a  martial  race.  In  the  past 
England  has  waged  a  few  unnecessary  wars,  and 
some  of  them  need  justification.  Speaking  broadly, 
however,  it  may  be  said  that  since  the  passing  of 
]MedIa3valism  and  Its  knight-errantry,  her  wars  have 
not  been  of  her  own  seeking.  Sometimes  she  fought 
in  pure  self-defence,  as  In  1588;  sometimes  she  was 
drawn  into  the  great  religious  struggles  that  fol- 
lowed the  Reformation,  as  under  William  III;  more 
often  she  has  lent  her  aid  to  maintain  a  political 
equilibrium  In  Europe  —  that  balance  of  power 
whose  overthrow,  Germany's  soldier  philosopher 
says,  is  essential  to  the  fulfilment  of  Germany's  am- 
bitions. 

That  England  reaped  advantage  from  such  wars 
as  these  is  undeniable;  that  frOm  them  she  emerged 
a  great  World-Power  Is  true;  that  she  entered  them 
in  order  to  become  a  great  World-Power  cannot  be 
sustained  In  argument  or  by  the  facts  of  history. 
As  to  some  of  the  British  Dominions,  of  course,  no 
proof  of  innocence  is  necessary.  They  came  to  her, 
like  Australia  and  New  Zealand;  like  the  East  and 
West  African  Colonies;  like  twelve  of  the  thirteen 
colonies  which  formed  the  original  United  States 
(New  York  being  the  exception),  as  the  result  of 
discovery  or  settlement,  and  by  the  same  right  as 
Spain  held  her  American  territories  and  Portugal 
holds  her  African  possessions  to-day;  as  Germany 
acquired  Togoland,   the   Camcroons,   New  Guinea, 


i62        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

the  Marshall  Islands,  and  German  East  Africa  and 
Southwest  Africa. 

At  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  England 
was  still,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  merely  a  Euro- 
pean Power.  She  had  trading  stations  here  and 
there,  as  in  India ;  she  had  a  few  small  settlements 
on  the  coast  of  America.  She  had  not  set  herself 
to  acquire  over-sea  dominions  as  had  Spain  and 
Portugal;  her  disputes  with  such  Powers  were  mainly 
devoted  to  getting  equal  trading  rights.  Her  army 
was  small;  her  navy  was  strong,  but  not  of  over- 
whelming strength;  and  it  was  hard  set  to  hold  its 
own  against  the  powerful  fleets  of  Holland  or  France. 
Since  the  days  of  Drake,  she  had  held  aloof  from 
military  enterprises  over  sea.  Then  came  a  change: 
In  the  course  of  one  hundred  years  of  almost  constant 
war,  despite  the  loss  of  her  American  Colonies,  she 
became  the  greatest  Empire  in  the  world.  Yet,  of 
all  the  wars  in  which  she  engaged  during  that  time, 
only  one  —  that  of  1737  —  had  its  motive  cause  out- 
side the  Continent  of  Europe,  and  that,  curiously 
enough,  was  the  only  war  in  which  England  gained 
no  territorial  advantage.  It  is,  perhaps,  significant 
that  this  war,  which  was  almost  entirely  commercial 
in  its  origin  and  object,  is  regarded  as  the  least 
defensible  of  all,  even  by  Its  own  authors.  The 
other  struggles  of  that  century  had  their  origin  in 
policies  with  which  England  was  only  indirectly  con- 
cerned. The  revolution  of  1688  and  the  accession 
of  William  III  drew  her  into  the  European  vortex  as 
an  opponent  of  Louis  XIV.  Blenheim,  Ramillles 
and  Oudenarde  gave  her  Gibraltar,  Nova  Scotia  and 
Newfoundland;  but  they  were  not  fought  in  order 
to  secure  a  footing  In  the  Mediterranean  or  at  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

In  1757  Austria  and  France,  meditating  an  attack 


CANADA  AND  INDIA  163 

upon  Prussia,  brought  England  into  the  field  in  aid 
of  Frederick  the  Great  when  he  was  menaced  with 
destruction.  The  noise  of  the  Seven  Years'  War 
echoed  through  the  whole  world.  Because  Fred- 
erick's men  were  fighting  in  Central  Europe  for 
Silesia  and  to  preserve  the  balance  of  power,  "  black 
men  fought  on  the  coast  of  Coromandel,  and  red 
men  scalped  each  other  by  the  great  Lakes  of  North 
America."  ^  Clive  made  England  predominant  in 
India,  Wolfe  made  her  mistress  of  North  America 
by  defeating  France.  The  popular  idea,  however, 
that  Canada  was  gained  by  conquest  is  entirely 
wrong.  Of  the  seven  Canadian  Provinces  only  two 
—  Nova  Scotia  and  Quebec  —  were  won  in  war. 
New  Brunswick  and  Ontario  were  colonized  by  the 
United  Empire  Loyalists  fleeing  from  the  Revolution 
which  made  the  United  States;  the  Western  Prov- 
inces were  peacefully  reclaimed  from  the  wilderness. 
The  French  Islands  In  the  West  Indies  were  taken, 
only  to  be  restored  to  France  under  the  Treaty  of 
Paris  in  1763. 

And  here  a  word  may  be  said  as  to  the  origin  of 
the  Indian  Empire.  War  emerged  after  initial 
peaceful  settlement  and  secured  territory  and  control, 
but  not  war  of  England's  seeking.  Bombay  fell  to 
England  as  part  of  the  dower  which  Catharine  of 
Braganza  brought  to  Charles  II.  As  in  the  case  of 
France,  Holland  and  Portugal,  it  was  trade  which 
brought  England  to  the  East.  Commerce,  not  con- 
quest, was  the  aim  of  the  East  India  Company.  For 
more  than  a  century  Its  territorial  possessions  con- 
sisted of  a  few  trading  stations,  and  so  they  would 
have  remained  but  for  the  ambitions  of  Duplelx  and 
the  fall  of  the  Moguls.     It  needs  only  to  remember 

2  Macaulay's  Essay  on  "  Frederick  the  Great." 


i64        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

what  a  mere  handful  of  men  won  the  battle  of  Plassy, 
and  that  they  were  led  by  a  civilian  clerk,  to  prove 
how  little  dreams  of  conquest  animated  England's 
pioneers  in  India.  When  Dupleix  attempted  to  win 
India  for  France,  England  was  driven  to  assert  her 
interests;  when  later  she  became  the  dominant  Euro- 
pean factor  in  the  peninsula,  the  chaotic  politics  and 
conditions  of  the  native  States  led  her  ever  onwards. 
Not  all,  perhaps,  that  has  been  done  in  India  has 
been  well  done;  but  England  at  least  is  innocent  of 
the  charge  that  she  entered  that  country  with  the 
design  of  conquering  it  by  the  sword. 

Then  came  the  Wars  of  the  French  Revolution. 
Again  England  was  swept  into  the  European  vortex 
for  no  other  reason  than  that  her  very  existence  was 
threatened  by  the  ambitions  of  Napoleon.  When 
the  great  struggle  ended,  she  had  again  enlarged  her 
Empire.  Though  she  did  not  even  then  keep  all  she 
had  won,  she  was  securely  established  at  Mauritius, 
at  Ceylon  and  the  Cape. 

The  manner  in  which  the  two  latter  dependencies 
came  to  her  is  an  instructive  illustration  of  the  way  in 
which  the  British  Empire  grew.  They  were  Dutch 
Colonies,  and  Dutch  Colonies  they  would  have  re- 
mained in  1815,  had  not  Holland,  by  choice,  or 
under  compulsion,  thrown  in  her  lot  with  France. 
The  Cape  was  a  strategic  position  of  the  first  im- 
portance to  the  holders  of  India.  As  such  England 
naturally  occupied  it  during  the  war;  but  when  peace 
was  made  in  1805,  she  restored  it  to  Holland,  im- 
portant as  it  was.  Again  Napoleon  declared  war, 
again  Flolland  stood  by  him,  again  England  occupied 
Cape  Town;  but  this  time  she  stayed  there,  although 
she  actually  paid  £6,000,000  to  Holland  as  com- 
pensation for  the  loss  of  her  territory.  In  like 
manner  Great  Britain  also  restored  to  the  Dutch  the 


VACILLATING  COLONIAL  POLICY       165 

Island  of  Java,  which  she  had  occupied  in  181 1  —  a 
possession  of  great  possibilities.  This  in  itself  will 
help  to  show  how  little  of  ultimate  design  went  to  the 
creation  of  England's  Colonial  Empire  or  entered 
into  her  original  calculations.  It  came  to  her  not 
?3  the  result  of  well-laid  plans,  but  as  spoils  won  in 
wars  begun  by  other  States  for  their  own  purposes; 
or  from  the  necessity'  of  protecting  and  organizing 
what  her  trader  had  accomplished,  as  has  been  the 
case  with  Germany  in  Samoa.  England's  colonies 
were,  so  to  say,  washed  to  her  feet  by  the  spreading 
ripples  of  great  storms,  in  the  unchaining  of  which 
she  had  little  part.  So  little,  indeed,  did  wanton 
territorial  ambition  colour  England's  policy,  that  she 
has  more  than  once  embarrassed  herself  by  her 
apathy.  Her  want  of  enterprise  in  the  Pacific,  which 
led  her  to  give  Germany  a  footing  in  New  Guinea 
and  to  acquiesce  in  the  German  annexation  of 
Samoa,  led  to  friction  between  Australia  and  the 
Mother  Country.  Her  vacillation  in  South  Africa, 
as  when,  against  the  wish  of  the  Dutch  inhabitants, 
she  gave  up  the  Orange  River  State  and,  later,  the 
Transvaal,  was  the  parent  of  .many  woes.  In  1865 
she  seriously  meditated  handing  over  her  West  Afri- 
can possessions  to  the  native  inhabitants,  and  only 
desisted  when  she  found  them  unfitted  for  independ- 
ence. Indeed,  through  a  considerable  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  Imperial  idea  languished,  and 
colonies  were  regarded  as  a  burden. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  point  to  any  war  deliberately 
promoted  by  England  for  territorial  aggrandisement, 
such  as  those  of  Louis,  or  Frederick,  or  Napoleon; 
Infinitely  less  for  those  Internal  reasons  which  have 
moulded  the  policy  of  Germany.  This  is  beyond 
question  true  as  regards  British  policy  since  the  open- 
ing of  the  Napoleonic  Wars.      During  the  nineteenth 


i66        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

century,  if  we  except  the  incident  of  Navarino,  her 
only  appearance  on  a  European  battlefield  was  in  the 
Crimea.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  wisdom  of 
that  enterprise,  England  at  least  neither  gained  in  ter- 
ritory nor  in  internal  peace  or  stability  by  it;  while  it 
is  certain  that  there  would  have  been  no  war  at  all 
but  for  Russia's  profound  belief  in  the  unwillingness 
of  England  to  fight.  So  great  was  the  general  belief 
in  the  pacific  nature  of  British  policy  that  it  actually 
precipitated  the  war.  It  is  noteworthy  that  belief 
in  British  pacifism  was  not  the  least  of  the  causes 
which  induced  the  present  struggle. 

The  second  half  of  last  century  saw  the  further 
growth  of  pacifism  in  England;  a  sentiment  which, 
on  one  occasion  at  least  —  when  to  an  extent  morally 
bound  to  help,  she  watched  the  dismemberment  of 
Denmark  —  did  her  no  credit  at  all.  She  developed 
a  taste  for  arbitration,  which  many  Englishmen  dis- 
trusted and  which  seldom  resulted  to  her  advantage. 

German  statesmen  revile  arbitration  because  in 
their  view  it  impedes  the  advancement  of  the 
stronger  States  with  the  great  moral  ideas  like  Ger- 
many; but  England  submitted  to  It  with  entire  readi- 
ness in  her  dispute  with  Portugal  over  African  ter- 
ritory and  in  her  controversy  with  Russia  over  the 
North  Sea  incident.  Take  again  the  attitude  of 
Great  Britain  during  the  American  War  of  Seces- 
sion, and  measure  it  by  the  Teutonic  standard.  Brit- 
ish sympathies  were  divided.  Even  the  majority 
who  believed  in  the  Northern  cause,  were  filled  with 
admiration  for  the  gallantry  of  the  South.  There 
was  a  strong  party,  with  the  then  greatest  English 
statesman  at  Its  head,  which  thought  that  the  Con- 
federate States  would  achieve  their  object.  There 
were  old  antagonisms  between  the  two  countries. 
America  was  already  beginning  to  prove  herself  a 


ENGLAND  TURNS  THE  OTHER  CHEEK    167 

formidable  commercial  rival.  There  was  ground  of 
complaint  against  the  Government  of  Washington  in 
the  Mason  and  Slidell  affair;  our  Consuls  had  been 
treated  none  too  well;  Mr.  Seward's  attitude  was  un- 
friendly and  his  diplomacy  awkward  and  irritating. 
England  might  well  have  taken  offence,  and  France 
would  have  been  ready  to  coalesce.  General  Bern- 
hardi  regards  it  as  an  "  unpardonable  blunder  from 
her  point  of  view  "  that  England  did  not  seize  the 
opportunity  of  assisting  the  seceding  States  to  break 
up  the  Union;  thus  removing  a  formidable  political 
and  commercial  rival  from  her  path.  That,  ap- 
parently, is  what  Germany  would  have  done;  but 
what  England  did  was  to  accept  a  by  no  means  hum- 
ble explanation,  and  to  pay  an  enormous  sum  for 
damage  inflicted  by  the  Alabama. 

There  were  other  incidents  of  those  fifty  years, 
the  treatment  of  which  by  successive  British  admin- 
istrations led  not  a  few  —  foreigners  as  well  as  Eng- 
lishmen—  to  think  that  Great  Britain  was  making 
too  much  of  a  gospel  of  turning  her  cheek  to  the 
smiter.  Even  the  United  States,  it  was  said,  whose 
pacific  doctrines  have  been  ever  above  question,  had 
not  tamely  passed  over  the  sinking  of  the  Maine  — 
provocation  not  a  whit  more  serious  than  affronts  to 
which  Great  Britain  had  more  than  once  submitted. 
The  one  big  war  in  which  England  engaged  during 
this  period  was  the  result  of  handing  back  to  the 
Boers,  after  the  battle  of  Majuba,  a  Province  which 
they  had  themselves  voluntarily  surrendered  to  Great 
Britain  as  a  refuge  from  bankruptcy  and  the  native 
menace.  Because  she  had  pushed  pacifism  too  far, 
she  had  to  use  a  quarter  of  a  million  men  in  1900  to 
do  what  she  might  have  done  with  a  tenth  part  of  the 
number  twenty  years  before,  had  it  been  necessary. 

Neither  then,  nor  in  her  efforts  to  reduce  arma- 


i68        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

ments  since  the  beginning  of  this  century,  was  Great 
Britain  given  credit  for  her  peaceful  endeavours. 
She  did  not,  it  was  said,  seelc  peace  and  ensue  it  for 
its  own  sake ;  she  was  still  at  heart  the  buccaneer,  but 
had  lost  the  daring  which  redeemed  the  buccaneer's 
faults.  She  had,  indeed,  lost  her  stomach  for  fight- 
ing, her  old  spirit  had  been  corroded  by  soft  living 
and  sordid  commercialism.  War  would  dislocate 
trade  and  commerce;  even  if  she  were  not  mixed  up 
in  it  she  would  suffer  in  her  business.  To  the  minds 
of  the  Camarilla,  these  were  the  true  motives  of 
British  policy,  conceal  them  as  she  might  under  a 
snuffling  hypocrisy. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  argue  these  propositions,  to 
claim  for  England  any  double  endowment  of  original 
virtue,  to  assert  that  she  is  much  better,  or  to  admit 
that  she  is  any  worse,  than  other  great  nations. 
Whatever  her  motives  may  have  been,  the  fact  re- 
mains that  the  policy  of  England  was  a  policy  of 
peace. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  relations  of  Great  Britain 
and  Germany  from  the  time  when  it  became  apparent 
that  the  great  continental  Power,  chafing  against  the 
compression  of  her  European  position,  had  stepped 
into  the  wider  arena  of  world  politics.  That  epoch, 
as  has  been  said,  opened  with  the  accession  of  Wil- 
liam II,  and  the  fall  of  Prince  Bismarck;  but  its  real 
activity  did  not  begin  until  some  six  years  later,  when 
Germany  began  to  show  aggressive  tendencies  in  the 
field  of  colonial  expansion,  concerning  which  Bis- 
marck had  said  to  Busch,  his  Boswell,  "  I  want  no 
colonies.  They  would  only  serve  to  provide  places 
for  certain  persons."  But  the  momentous  date  was 
the  27th  of  November,  1897,  when  Admiral  von 
Tirpitz  introduced  his  famous  Navy  Bill.  In  them- 
selves the  original  proposals  were  not  formidable. 


FIRST  GERMAN  NAVY  BILL  169 

Seven  ships  of  the  line  and  two  large  and  seven  small 
cruisers  were  to  be  constructed  by  the  end  of  1904. 
There  were,  however,  attendant  circumstances  which 
made  the  enterprise  significant.  The  Kaiser  had  sent 
his  famous  telegram  to  President  Kruger  only  a  few 
months  before;  while  Prince  Biilow  informs  us  that 
about  the  time  that  Germany  began  to  build  her  fleet, 
she  established  herself  at  Klao  Chou.  A  few  months 
later  she  concluded  the  Shantung  Treaty  with  China, 
which  Prince  Biilow  regards  as,  "  One  of  the  most 
significant  actions  in  modern  German  history,"  secur- 
ing for  Germany  "  a  place  in  the  sun  in  the  Far  East, 
on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  which  have  a 
great  future  before  them." 

All  this  was,  as  the  ex-Chancellor  says,  so  "  sig- 
nificant "  that  a  few  words  upon  it  here  will  be  in 
place.  The  German  taxpayers,  already  supporting 
a  huge  army,  were  not  passionately  set  on  having  a 
big  na\y  as  well.  In  1896  the  Reichstag  had  re- 
jected proposals  to  increase  the  fleet.  In  order  to 
carry  Admiral  von  Tirpitz's  bill  it  was  necessary  to 
"  g'f^gei'-up  "  the  German  people.  We  are  naively 
informed  by  Prince  Billow  how  It  was  done.  The 
people  were  to  be  pointed  to  a  new  goal,  a  Manoa, 
a  place  in  the  sun;  and  there  was  to  be  some  twist- 
ing of  the  British  lion's  tail;  though  this  w^as  to  be 
done  carefully  to  avoid  arousing  that  animal's  sus- 
picions. So  "  with  great  trouble  and  after  a  long 
fight  "  the  War  Lords  were  "  lucky  enough  to  con- 
vince the  commonalty  of  the  usefulness  and  necessity 
of  a  positive  colonial  policy."  Singularly  enough 
this  was  achieved  under  the  administration  of  Herr 
Dcrnburg  who,  to  the  American  people,  has  denied 
with  indignation  that  Germany  "  ever  attempted  to 
get  a  World-Empire,"  still  less  to  get  it  by  war  or 
conquest. 


170        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

In  all  this  there  is  no  suggestion  that  the  new  fleet 
was  to  hold  such  colonies  as  Germany  already  pos- 
sessed, or  to  keep  the  sea-ways  open  for  her  com- 
merce. The  policy  was  positive,  one  of  annexation 
and  menace;  and  the  menace  was  to  Great  Britain: 
the  radiant  places  could  only  be  got  at  her  expense. 
German  colonies  could  have  nothing  whatever  to 
fear  from  France  or  Russia;  yet,  in  1900,  only  three 
years  after  the  adoption  of  the  Von  Tirpitz  pro- 
gramme, and  before  it  was  half  completed,  a  new 
Navy  Law  was  passed,  by  which  the  German  navy 
would  be  well-nigh  doubled.  It  was  the  Kaiser's  re- 
ply to  the  Tsar's  proposal  for  a  limitation  of  arma- 
ments; and  it  was  made  at  the  moment  when  Britain 
was  engaged  in  the  South  African  War. 

Those  early  years  when  the  German  navy  was  in 
swaddling  clothes  were  full  of  grave  anxieties  for 
Prince  Biilow.  From  the  glimpse  of  them  which  he 
has  allowed  us,  can  be  fairly  accurately  judged  what 
the  action  of  Germany  would  have  been  had  she  been 
in  England's  place.  She  would  not  have  let  herself 
be  hoodwinlced,  nor  would  she  have  allowed  the 
menace  to  grow  unchecked.  The  moulders  of  Ger- 
man policy  •'  regard  it  as  a  maxim  that  it  is  the  moral 
duty  of  a  State  to  its  citizens  to  begin  a  war  when 
its  enemies  force  it  to  make  warlike  preparations 
which  it  cannot  support;  or  when  its  rival  seems  likely 
to  obtain  a  lead  not  easily  to  be  overtaken.  Had 
Germany  been  in  England's  place,  she  would  have 
struck  while  her  enemy's  navy  was  weak.  German 
statesmen  must  have  thought  England's  failure  to  do 
so  a  blunder  as  great  as  her  neglect  of  the  oppor- 
tunity to  shatter  the  United  States  during  the  War  of 
Secession. 

3  Bernhardi,  Germany  and  the  Next  War,  p.  53. 


GRASPING  THE  TRIDENT  171 

There  were  those  in  England  who  thought  that 
such  a  course  might  be  wise.  They  recalled  how 
England  had  attacked  the  Danish  fleet  at  Copen- 
hagen as  a  precautionary  measure,  and  they  pointed 
out  that  the  new  menace  was  greater  than  the  old. 
The  Danish  fleet  at  worst  was  only  intended  as  a 
reinforcement  of  an  enemy's  power,  and  would  not 
have  been  a  reinforcement  of  ov^erwhelming  strength ; 
but  here  was  a  navy  growing  to  an  extent  wholly  dis- 
proportionate to  its  overt  purpose.  A  very  modest 
fleet  could  have  safeguarded  German  commerce  and 
German  colonies;  in  fact  her  commerce  had  advanced 
by  leaps  and  bounds  when  she  had  practically  no  navy 
at  all.  No  one  coveted  her  possessions  abroad.  In- 
deed, it  was  after  she  had  begun  her  programme  of 
naval  construction,  that  Great  Britain  and  America 
had  given  her  Samoa ;  while  we  had  not  thwarted 
her  annexation  of  islands  in  Polynesia  or  the  acquisi- 
tion of  territory  in  Africa.  For  all  her  purposes  a 
fleet  as  strong  as  that  of  France  would  be  sufficient. 
She  wanted  more,  however;  hers  was  a  wider  aim. 
For  years  Treitschke  had  preached  to  his  students 
at  Berlin  that  a  colonial  Empire  and  maritime  dom- 
inance was  the  goal  of  Germanic  development;  and 
the  then  Crown  Prince  William  and  many  notabilities 
of  the  Empire  had  thronged  his  lecture-room.  The 
Kaiser  did  not  forget  the  lessons  of  his  earlier  days. 
It  was  his  ambition  to  grasp  the  trident  which,  as 
will  be  noticed,  he  holds  well  sheltered  in  harbour 
and  not  on  the  open  sea. 

Observers  in  England  argued  that  such  preten- 
sions were  incompatible,  not  only  with  the  safety  of 
the  British  Empire,  but  with  the  very  existence  of  the 
United  Kingdom  itself.  Deprived  of  her  navy, 
Germany  might  lose  her  colonies,  which  were  value- 
less, but  she  would  still  remain  a  great  and  powerful 


172        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Empire.  Without  her  navy,  the  island  home  of  the 
British  Empire  would  be  nothing  more  than  a  be- 
leaguered fortress,  doomed  to  surrender  to  any  as- 
sailant after  six  months  of  misery,  without  a  shot 
being  fired.  The  British  fleet  was  literally  the  bul- 
wark and  stay  of  every  British  citizen.  If,  as  Ger- 
many now  asserts,  strategical  necessity  can  excuse  the 
violation  of  every  code  of  honour,  how  much  more 
might  the  law  of  self-preservation  have  justified  the 
forcible  limitation  of  Germany's  naval  preparations? 
Strong  as  were  these  arguments,  they  did  not  suf- 
fice to  overcome  the  old  British  doctrine  of  live  and 
let  live ;  they  did  not  even  convince  a  very  strong  sec- 
tion that  there  was  any  real  or  grave  danger.  Many, 
who  admitted  that  Germany's  nav^al  policy  exceeded 
the  necessities  of  defence,  held  that  she  was  entitled 
to  her  ambitions,  and  that  it  would  be  immoral  to 
attempt  to  thwart  them  until  they  had  blossomed  into 
actual  aggression.  The  main  body  of  the  pacifists 
denied  that  Germany  had  any  ambitions  or  designs 
of  aggression  at  all.  True,  the  language  of  the  Em- 
peror smacked  of  ambition,  but  allowance  must  be 
made,  they  said,  for  the  exuberance  of  a  ruler  in  the 
raw  vigour  of  life  and  not  without  a  decorative  sense 
and  taste.  The  Navy  League  and  Count  Reventlow 
talked  big,  but  they  were  driven  to  their  verbal  ex- 
cesses by  the  pronounced  peaceful  instincts  of  the 
German  people.  Bernhardi  was  only  a  brilliant  sol- 
dier, wrapped  up  In  his  profession,  and  therefore 
bellicose.  As  for  the  professors, —  it  was  well 
known  what  professors  are;  always  striving  after 
some  new  thing,  faddists  evolving  impossible  the- 
ories; men  who,  like  Benedict,  must  still  be  talking 
though  nobody  heeds  them.  The  Germans  were 
wise  in  all  things,  except  in  keeping  so  many  soldiers 
and  building  so  many  ships;  and,  after  all,  that  was 


IGNORING  THE  MENACE  ?73 

only  because  they  did  not  possess  a  really  democratic 
constitution.  Once  the  people  got  control  —  it  was 
to  be  observed  how  Socialism  was  growing!  —  the 
Krupps,  the  militarists  and  the  professors  would  have 
to  retire  into  seclusion.  The  best  way  of  helping  the 
innate  pacifism  of  the  Germans  to  assert  Itself  would 
be  to  show  we  had  no  unworthy  suspicion  of  them; 
and  to  set  them  a  good  example  by  cutting  down  our 
naval  estimates;  or,  perhaps  better  still,  by  shutting 
down  our  arsenals  and  dockyards  altogether.  Pac- 
ifism could  no  further  go. 

Although  this  last  wild  proposal  was  confined  to 
a  few  extremists,  the  Idea  of  a  reduction  of  naval 
expenditure  received  great  support;  It  even  became 
the  avowed  policy  of  the  Liberal  Party  In  England. 
Circumstances  prevented  the  attainment  of  their  de- 
sign; but  they  steadily  endeavoured  to  mould  those 
circumstances  to  Its  attainment.  That  a  good  ex- 
ample might  be  set  to  other  nations  the  Government 
even  went  so  far  as  to  reduce  Its  own  estimates. 


CHAPTER  IX 

WHAT   DID    ENGLAND   DO    FOR    PEACE? 

With  the  accession  of  the  Liberal  Party  to  power  in 
England  at  the  end  of  1905,  the  relations  between 
Great  Britain  and  Germany  entered  upon  a  new 
phase.  Hitherto  England  had  been  content  to  go 
her  own  way,  pursuing  a  policy  of  national  defence, 
based  upon  a  proportionate  two-power  preponder- 
ance of  naval  strength.  This  had  long  been  accepted 
as  the  minimum  of  security;  but  it  had  become  in- 
creasingly difficult  to  maintain  with  the  growth  of  the 
German  navy.  With  this  great  naval  strength,  how- 
ever, England  had  sought  to  avoid  giving  or  taking 
offence;  she  had,  excepting  in  the  Crimean  War, 
steered  clear  of  European  conflict  for  a  century.  ^  At 
the  same  time  she  had  been  much  occupied  in  adjust- 
ing differences  between  other  Powers;  never  attempt- 
ing to  base  her  own  naval  and  military  policy  on  ab- 
stractions, or  to  influence  unduly  the  policy  of  other 
nations.  Indeed,  relying  on  her  insular  position,  she 
had  effectively  abstained  from  international  agree- 
ments. 

When  the  Liberal  Government  took  office  they  in- 
herited a  well-defined  naval  programme.  Consist- 
ently with  their  former  protests  against  "  unproduc- 
tive "  expenditure  on  armaments,  they  resolved,  and 
entered  upon  a  policy  of  retrenchment;  they  sought 
to  make  arrangements  with  Germany  which  would 
enable  them  to  combine  economy  with  national  se- 
curity. Their  first  step  was  to  present  reduced 
Naval  Estimates  in  March,  1906;  but  in  the  same 

174 


ENGLAND  REDUCES  NAVAL  PROGRAMME    175 

month  Germany  amended  her  Navy  Law  of  1900 
—  which  itself  doubled  the  Von  Tirpitz  programme 
of  1897  —  by  adding  six  large  cruisers  to  her  fleet. 

A  government  less  honest  in  its  desire  for  peace 
might  well  have  seen  in  this  act  a  reason,  perhaps  an 
excuse,  for  abandoning  professions  which  had  well 
served  their  electoral  purposes,  but  which  also  repre- 
sented the  long-sustained  and  expressed  policy  of 
their  party.  The  Government  of  Sir  Henry  Camp- 
bell-Bannerman,  however,  refused  to  be  diverted 
from  their  pacific  aims.  Their  reply  to  the  increase 
of  the  German  naval  programme  was,  in  July,  1906, 
to  put  forward  amended  Naval  Estimates  which  re- 
duced the  March  programme  25  per  cent,  in  battle- 
ships, 33  per  cent,  in  submarines,  and  60  per  cent, 
in  ocean-going  destroyers.  Their  professed  reason 
for  this  bold  step  was  declared  to  be  the  invitation 
of  the  Tsar  to  the  Powers  for  another  conference  on 
the  reduction  of  armaments.  The  failure  of  the 
previous  conference  gave  little  hope  for  the  second; 
but,  that  nothing  should  be  left  undone  to  increase 
the  chances  of  success,  England  resolved  to  prove 
her  own  sincerity;  to  give  a  lead  to  her  neighbours 
and  rivals  by  reducing  her  own  rate  of  shipbuilding 
actually  below  what  had  been,  by  her  First  Lord  of 
the  Admiralty,  represented  as  a  fair  margin  of 
safety. 

The  step  was  sensational  and  apparently  gallant, 
but  it  was  not  politics;  and,  as  was  prophesied  by 
many  critics,  it  proved  futile  and  even  dangerous  to 
British  interests.  The  policy  failed  completely.  It 
became  an  error  which  Great  Britain  never  quite  re- 
paired. So  far  from  moving  Germany  to  respond 
with  a  similar  measure  of  curtailment,  it  gave  her  an 
opportunity  to  reduce  the  lead  of  England;  and  she 
seized  it.     The  Kaiser  refused  to  hear  of  disarma- 


176        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

ment  in  any  degree,  or  of  anything  that  restricted  the 
will  and  ambition  of  Germany.  He  thought  the 
Conference  nonsensical,  and  roundly  declared  that 
If  disarmament  was  to  be  on  its  agenda  Germany 
would  stay  outside.  He  was  aiming  at  naval 
strength  as  an  instrument  of  diplomacy,  as  a  symbol 
of  national  strength,  as  a  "  big  stick  "  to  be  used 
when  "  the  Day  "  was  come. 

Nevertheless,  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman 
would  not  yield  without  further  effort.  In  an  ar- 
ticle in  The  Nation,  early  in  1907,  he  pleaded  that 
a  subject  so  urgent  as  the  reduction  of  naval  and  mili- 
tary expenditure  should  not  be  excluded  from  the 
Conference;  and  that  Great  Britain  would  even  make 
substantial  reductions  on  her  1906  programme  if 
others  were  willing  to  follow  her.  Within  a 
month  the  answer  came  from  Prince  Biilow,  that  any 
discussion  of  such  a  subject  would  be  unpractical 
"  even  if  it  should  not  involve  risks."  This  declara- 
tion he  emphasized  in  March,  1908,  by  an  accelera- 
tion of  the  Kaiser's  naval  programme.  This  had 
the  effect  of  increasing  the  German  navy  by  four  bat- 
tleships in  advance  of  the  original  programme. 
That  was  the  cynical  and  challenging  answer  to  the 
British  Government's  desire,  free  from  ulterior  mo- 
tives, for  a  reduction  of  armaments;  so  lifting  the 
burden  of  defence  somewhat  from  the  back  of  the 
worker  in  every  country  of  Europe. 

At  this  point  England  took  alarm.  Experts  be- 
gan to  calculate  how  soon,  at  the  then  rate  of  pro- 
gression, the  German  navy  would  become  a  really 
formidable  and  dangerous  rival  of  the  British.  It 
was  no  longer  a  question  of  building  against  two 
Powers.  It  was  a  case  of  preserving  a  superiority 
over  one  Power,  almost  at  England's  very  door. 
Other  nations  might  exist  and  flourish  without  marl- 


ENGLAND  TAKES  ALARM  177 

time  power;  in  her  position,  with  a  vast  mercantile 
marine  which  had  to  carry  out  her  manufactures  and 
bring  back  her  food  and  raw  material,  it  was  life  or 
death.  Not  looking  forward  to  taking  part  in  a 
war  on  the  Continent,  she  had  never  sought  to  form 
a  great  standing  army;  but  a  navy  of  preponderating 
strength  was  imperative.  Every  man  in  the  country 
knew  this,  as  all  our  island  people  had  accepted  it 
over  the  generations  in  which  England  was  free  from 
naval  warfare.  In  the  light  of  the  resolution  made 
by  Von  Biilow  in  1907,  the  Avhole  policy  of  naval 
defence  had  to  be  reconsidered,  the  strategy  remod- 
elled, and  the  ships  redisposeci.  There  were  no 
longer  Channel  Squadrons,  Atlantic  Squadrons,  and 
Mediterranean  and  Home  Fleets.  The  new  disposi- 
tion gave  virtually  one  Fleet  only,  concentrated  in  the 
North  Sea  to  meet  the  menace  there.  That  policy 
was  inevitable,  and  it  has  proved  itself  wise,  as  the 
events  of  this  war  have  shown.  Had  it  not  been 
adopted,  a  German  army  would  probably  have  been 
occupying  England  in  the  autumn  of  19 14. 

There  were  three  courses  open  to  Great  Britain 
when  the  danger  became  indubitably  sure.  She 
might  have  fought  Germany  there  and  then;  or  she 
might  have  met  Germany's  challenge  by  largely  in- 
creasing her  naval  estimates.  Again  there  were 
many  who  thought  that  if  England  had  voted  a  navy 
loan  of  say,  £100,000,000,  and  declared  her  deter- 
mination to  build  eight,  ten,  or  a  dozen  battleships 
a  year,  Germany  might  have  given  up  a  struggle  in 
which  the  longer  purse  must  inevitably  win.  But 
neither  of  these  aggressive  methods  were  adopted. 
England  now  tried  to  meet  the  trouble  and  lighten 
the  grievous  burden  of  taxation  —  as  heavy  for  Ger- 
many as  for  herself  —  by  direct  negotiation  for  re- 
duction of  armaments  with  that  country. 


178        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

King  Edward  explored  the  difficult  field  in  1908, 
and,  for  once,  his  tactful  diplomacy  failed.  The 
Kaiser  was  scornfully  obdurate.  He  saw  in  the  at- 
tempt at  an  understanding  only  that  fear  which 
showed  a  decline  of  character  and  patriotism  in  Eng- 
land. In  1909,  Sir  Edward  Grey  tried  to  reach  an 
understanding  between  the  two  countries  by  suggest- 
ing that  the  naval  attaches  of  the  two  countries 
should  be  allowed  to  observe  the  different  stages  of 
battleship  construction.  Again,  far  from  urbanely, 
Germany  refused.  She  was  resolved  to  go  her  own 
way.  None  could  dispute  her  right  to  do  so;  but 
it  was  a  way  which  has  led  to  a  world-disaster;  for 
it  encouraged  her  to  think  that  Great  Britain  was 
shorn  of  the  character  which  had  made  her  great;  of 
the  will  and  patriotism  which  had  made  her  strong; 
that  she  was  "  the  lath  painted  to  look  like  iron  "; 
and  that  she  would  neither  stand  by  her  friends  nor 
sternly  defend  herself,  if  a  crisis  came. 

She  was  mistaken,  but  she  went  on  her  way;  build- 
ing ships  strenuously;  creating  situations  in  interna- 
tional diplomacy  with  a  growing  spirit  of  confidence 
and  arrogance;  trying  her  ever-growing  strength  by 
disturbing  the  chancelleries  of  Europe.  She  over- 
estimated her  success,  however,  and  some  suspicion 
of  this  fact  seems  to  have  entered  the  mind  of  the 
German  Government  about  1909,  when  it  was  found 
that  the  Triple  Alliance  was  confronted  by  the  Triple 
Entente.  In  1904  all  outstanding  differences  be- 
tween France  and  England  had  been  settled;  three 
years  later  a  similar  reconciliation  of  interests  had 
taken  place  between  England  and  Russia,  greatly  to 
Germany's  discomfiture.  Great  Britain,  in  harmony 
with  those  powerful  States,  was  a  different  proposi- 
tion from  the  Great  Britain,  separated  from  them 
by  disputes  in  Asia,  Africa,  and  America,  shut  up  in 


A  ONE-SIDED  BARGAIN  179 

the  splendid  Isolation  of  her  Island  home.  The 
German  tone,  thenceforward,  became  less  emphatic. 
With  the  change  of  Chancellors,  in  1909,  came  op- 
portunity for  a  change  of  policy.  The  new  policy 
was  directed  towards  detaching  Britain  from  the 
Triple  Entente  by  suggestions  of  a  naval  agreement. 
It  was  Prince  Bismarck's  do  lit  des  once  more,  and, 
indeed,  German  diplomacy  never  seems  to  move  out 
of  this  rut  of  bribery,  the  amount  of  the  bribe  being 
in  inverse  ratio  to  the  thing  it  buys.  Herr  von  Beth- 
mann-Hollweg's  offer  of  July,  1909,  was  drawn  on 
the  same  lines  as  his  "  Infamous  proposal  "  of  July, 
19 14,  and  a  similar  base  suggestion  in  19 12.  In  the 
latter,  England  was  asked  to  stand  by  while  Belgium 
was  violated  and  France  crushed,  and  as  a  reward 
was  promised  "  friendly  relations  "  with  Germany, 
freedom  from  attack  till  another  time  undefined! 
In  1909,  England  was  to  enter  into  an  agreement 
with  Germany  declaring,  first,  that  neither  country 
contemplated,  nor  would  commit,  any  act  of  aggres- 
sion on  the  other;  again,  that  in  the  event  of  any  at- 
tack upon  either  England  or  Germany  by  a  third 
Power,  or  group  of  Powers,  the  one  not  attacked 
should  remain  neutral.  The  result  of  that  arrange- 
ment would  be  to  tie  the  hands  of  England  and  leave 
the  hands  of  Germany  free  in  any  event.  So  long 
as  Germany  was  bound  to  Austria  by  an  offensive 
and  defensive  alliance,  there  was  no  necessity  for  her 
to  take  the  Initiative  —  Austria  could  do  that  for 
her;  and  still  England  would  be  bound  by  her  bond. 
So,  if  Austria  went  to  war  with  Russia,  Germany  was 
bound  to  assist  her.  But  by  the  Franco-Russian 
agreement,  France  would  be  bound  to  attack  Ger- 
many as  soon  as  Russia  was  assailed  by  two  enemies. 
By  the  suggested  ingenious  arrangement,  therefore, 
England  would  be  bound  to  neutrality  by  the  aggres- 


i8o        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

slon  of  France  on  Germany.  Not  only  so,  but  the 
proposed  agreement  with  Germany  would  debar  her 
from  protecting  the  violation  of  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium,  or  any  other  neutral  State,  if  it  were 
violated  by  Germany  as  the  result  of  aggression  by 
France.  Great  Britain  would  thus  effectually  debar 
herself  from  helping  her  friends  in  any  circumstances ; 
she  would  lose  all  claim  to  be  regarded  as  their 
friend;  she  would  have  to  sit  quietly  while  those  who 
might  help  her  in  her  hour  of  need  were  destroyed; 
and  she  would  have  bartered  away  her  honour  for 
ever. 

For  all  this,  what  was  she  to  get?  A  reduction 
of  the  German  navy,  a  promise  that  the  German 
naval  programme  would  be  abandoned?  No.  The 
offer  was  that  the  rate  of  German  shipbuilding  would 
be  retarded.  The  naval  programme  would  have  to 
be  carried  out  in  its  entirety;  and  the  number  of  ships 
to  be  completed  In  191 8  v/ould  have  to  remain  as 
fixed  by  the  Navy  Law;  but  as  a  great  concession,  the 
number  annually  laid  down  in  the  earlier  years  would 
be  reduced,  with  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  last 
few  years  of  the  statutory  period. 

Not  the  most  ardent  pacifist  could  have  blamed 
Great  Britain  had  she  refused  to  discuss  proposals  so 
one-sided,  indeed  so  offensive  to  intelligence;  so  im- 
possible of  acceptance  without  betraying  her  friends, 
smirching  her  honour,  and  preparing  for  her  own  ul- 
timate debacle,  when  with  pride  and  "  the  soul 
possessed  of  sacrifice  "  vanished,  Germany,  having 
done  her  work  elsewhere,  would  turn  her  attention 
to  her  hated  rival  In  the  North  Sea.  Yet  England 
did  not  refuse  to  discuss  even  these  proposals;  for 
Germany  had  ever  a  way  of  looking  at  things  which 
was  not  to  be  found  In  the  code  that  gentlemen,  and 
the  nations  they  represent,  set  for  themselves;  and 


GERMANY  CRIES  OFF  i8i 

this  was  taken  into  account.  She  did,  Indeed,  de- 
cline to  make  an  agreement  which  would  bind  her  to 
neutrality  under  all  conceivable  circumstances;  but 
she  was  willing  to  make  a  declaration  that  none  of 
her  agreements  with  other  Powers  had  any  designs 
hostile  to  Germany,  and  that  she  herself  had  no  hos- 
tile intentions,  and  would  cherish  none.  Her  pre- 
vious attitude  towards  Germany  was  sufficient  guar- 
antee of  this  declaration;  but  lest  that  should  not  be 
enough,  she  laboured  strenuously  to  avert  war  be- 
tween Russia  and  Austria  over  the  question  of  Bos- 
nia and  Herzegovina  in  191 1;  and  she  commenced 
negotiations  for  the  settlement  of  questions  of  mutual 
Interest,  such  as  the  Bagdad  railway.  These  were 
conducted  to  a  final  arrangement  which  conceded  to 
Germany  very  substantial  and  much-coveted  advan- 
tages. 

Finally,  England  again  approached  Germany  with 
a  view  to  the  settlement  of  the  naval  question,  pro- 
posing a  discussion  on  "  temporary  retardation  "  of 
shipbuilding.  The  reply  to  these  later  parlement- 
aires  Is  instructive.  The  German  Chancellor 
promptly  withdrew  his  former"  promise  of  a  tem- 
porary retardation  In  certain  circumstances,  on  the 
suddenly  discovered  ground  that  it  was  desirable  to 
keep  the  shipbuilding  Industry  w^ell  supplied  with 
orders !  As  to  the  suggestion  that  the  naval  pro- 
gramme should  not  be  Increased,  England  was  asked 
what  she  would  give  in  return;  but,  before  she  could 
answer,  the  Kaiser  abruptly  ended  the  business  by 
telling  the  British  Ambassador  that  Germany  would 
never  bind  herself  to  a  stationai7  and  fixed  pro- 
gramme. A  little  later  —  on  March  30th,  191 1  — 
the  German  Chancellor  made  a  speech  in  the  Reich- 
stag, In  which  he  said  that  he  considered  any  attempt 
to  control  shipbuilding  by  agreement  was  quite  im- 


i82        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

practicable,  and  that  any  such  attempt  would  lead 
to  mutual  distrust  and  perpetual  friction. 

Though  Germany  was  unwilling  to  concede  any- 
thing, however,  she  still  tried  to  induce  England  to 
make  a  political  agreement,  desiring  that  it  should 
be  of  the  nature  of  a  general  political  formula.  Sir 
Edward  Grey  pointed  out  that  such  an  agreement 
would  be  more  comprehensive  and  intimate  than  any 
agreement,  short  of  alliance,  which  England  had  with 
any  other  Power;  and  that  it  would,  therefore,  cause 
grave  misunderstanding  with  France  and  Russia. 
Her  arrangements  with  those  countries  were  merely 
settlements  of  specific  questions,  and  her  friendship 
with  France  and  Russia  did  not  preclude  friendly 
understandings  with  Germany.  He  added  that  he 
would  gladly  see  some  such  arrangement  attempted.^ 

In  the  summer  of  191 1  the  Agadir  incident  broke 
in  upon  these  leisurely  and  elusive  conversations.  It 
had  the  definite  result  of  showing  Germany  that  Eng- 
land would  not  stand  idly  by  in  the  case  of  unpro- 
voked aggression  upon  France.^  There  were,  in- 
deed, some  British  extremists  who  thought  that  we 
might  have  seized  the  opportunity  of  German  intru- 
sion into  Moroccan  affairs  to  settle  the  naval  busi- 
ness once  for  all;  but  that  would  have  had  no  sub- 
stantial support  in  England.  It  is  clear  from  what 
Prince  Biilow  says  in  Imperial  Germany  that  Ger- 
many's motive  then  was  entirely  one  of  tentative  ag- 
gression. At  the  time  of  the  Algeciras  Conference 
he  had  declared  that  the  question  of  Morocco  was 
really  unimportant  to  Germany,  since  her  trade 
amounted  to  less  than  £100,000  a  year;  in  his  book, 
however,  he  adopts  another  line.  Though  Germany 
did  not  get  all  she  wanted  out  of  the  Conference,  she 

1  Speech  by  Sir  Edward  Grey,  March  13th,  1911. 

2  Speech  by  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  Mansion  House,  July  21st,  1911. 


THE  AGADIR  OPPORTUNITY  183 

did  manage  to  assert  her  right  to  interfere  in  inter- 
national matters,  even  when  she  had  no  interests  at 
stake.  In  other  words,  the  Kaiser  was  carrying  out 
his  ambition  to  allow  nothing  in  the  world  to  be  done 
without  German  intervention!  The  ex-Chancellor, 
with  an  enviable  gift  for  phrases,  says  that  the  Con- 
ference "  provided  a  bell  which  we  could  ring  "  when 
necessity  demanded.^  In  other  words,  Germany  had 
to  interfere  in  Pvlorocco  because  William  II  had 
kindly  promised  to  be  the  Protector  of  the  three  hun- 
dred millions  of  JMahommedans  who  are  scattered 
over  the  world,  and  some  earnest  must  be  given  of 
his  qualifications  for  the  post. 

It  was  therefore  held  in  some  quarters  of  robust 
thought  that  to  England  had  come  a  fortunate  oppor- 
tunity for  smashing  the  German  navy,  by  taking  up  a 
quarrel  In  which  the  help  of  France  was  certain. 
Undoubtedly  it  was  a  good  opportunity,  and  she 
would  have  had  not  only  France  but  expediency  on 
her  side;  but  instead  of  taking  the  chance,  England, 
with  higher  purpose  and  deep  desire  for  peace, 
laboured  successfully  to  bring  about  a  friendly  set- 
tlement. Indeed,  Herr  von  Bethmann-Hollweg 
acknowledged  the  usefulness  and  sincerity  of  British 
efforts;  he  even  expressed  the  pious  belief  that  they 
had  materially  cleared  the  way  for  friendship  be- 
tween England  and  Germany  —  at  the  old  price. 

Accordingly,  when  the  Emperor  suggested  that  a 
member  of  the  British  Cabinet  should  go  to  Berlin 
to  talk  things  over,  our  Government  responded  with 
alacrity.  Lord  Haldane,  whose  admiration  and 
friendship  for  Germany  made  him  especially  suit- 
able for  the  purpose,  paid  a  visit  to  Berlin  on  the 
2nd  of  February,  19 12.     But  on  January  31st,  while 

^  Von  Biilow,  Imperial  Germany,  p.  loo. 


i84        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

he  was  packing  his  bag  in  London,  the  Kaiser  was 
opening  the  Reichstag  and  announcing  a  new  Navy 
Law  involving  an  increased  expenditure  of  £13,000,- 
000.  It  is,  therefore,  not  surprising  that  when  Lord 
Haldane  was  invited  to  discuss  the  terms  of  an  agree- 
ment of  amity  between  the  two  countries,  he  should 
reply  by  asking  what  was  the  good  of  making  an 
agreement,  if  Germany  went  on  increasing  her  fleet 
and  forcing  Great  Britain  to  do  the  same.  -There- 
upon came  the  old  stereotyped  answer:  without  a  po- 
litical agreement  there  could  be  no  naval  agreement, 
and  there  could  be  no  naval  agreement  which  in- 
volved reduction  of  expenditure.  Retardation  of 
building  perhaps,  but  reduction,  No. 

Even  that  cheerless  pour-parler  did  not  deter  Eng- 
land from  making  further  efforts  for  an  agreement. 
The  British  Government  offered  to  sign  the  follow- 
ing declaration: 

"  The  two  Powers  being  naturally  desirous  of  securing 
peace  and  friendship  between  them,  England  declares  that  she 
will  neither  make,  nor  join  in,  any  unprovoked  attack  upon 
Germany.  Aggression  upon  Germany  is  not,  and  forms  no 
part  of  any  treaty,  understanding  or  combination  to  which 
England  is  now  a  party,  nor  will  she  become  a  party  to  any- 
thing that  has  such  an  object." 

Still  that  was  not  enough  for  Germany.  She  held 
to  her  aim  of  dealing  a  fatal  blow  to  any  friendly 
understanding  between  England  and  her  friends  of 
the  Entente;  and  she  demanded  a  pledge  of  British 
neutrality  in  the  event  of  Germany  being  at  war. 
That  pledge,  for  reasons  already  stated,  England 
would  not  give;  and  so  the  negotiations  failed  once 
more. 

England  now  made  her  last  effort  for  accommoda- 
tion   and    arrangement.     In    19 12    and    19 13    Mr. 


ENGLAND'S  RELIANCE  ON  SEA  POWER     185 

Churchill  made  his  famous  proposal  for  a  naval  holi- 
day. If,  in  any  year,  Germany  decided  to  relax  her 
shipbuilding  programme,  England  would  do  the 
same;  by  which  device,  as  he  put  it,  relief  might  be 
obtained  "  without  negotiations,  bargaining,  or  the 
slightest  restriction  upon  the  sovereign  freedom  of 
any  Power."  Germany,  with  a  steadily  growing  dis- 
dain, made  no  response  to  the  suggestion.  There- 
after, each  of  the  tv\'o  nations  pursued  its  own  way. 

"  Yes,"  some  reader  may  say,  "  but  in  all  this  you 
forget  the  essential  part  of  England's  policy  that  her 
navy  should  exceed  that  of  Germany  by  a  certain 
ratio.  Why  should  she  regard  German  shipbuild- 
ing as  aggressive  to  herself,  and  Germany  not  take 
the  same  view  of  England's  naval  programme?" 
The  question  is  natural,  but  the  answer  is  not  beset 
with  difficulty.  Without  a  powerful  navy  capable  of 
resisting  any  attack  England  could  not  exist  for  a 
year  if  a  powerful  enemy  decided  otherwise.  No 
one  regards  the  large  standing  armies  of  the  Conti- 
nental Powers  as  more  than  essentially  defensive 
precautions.  England  has  a  very  small  army;  curi- 
ously enough,  she  has  no  real  standing  army  at  all. 
A  vote  of  Parliament,  or  of  one  House  of  Parlia- 
ment, in  any  one  year  could  put  an  end  to  her  army, 
since  it  has  to  be  renewed  annually.  Being  a  purely 
naval  Power,  England  could  never  attack  Germany 
on  land.  If  there  was  war  between  the  two  coun- 
tries, without  her  navy  she  could  not  land  a  single 
man  on  German  soil,  or  fire  a  shot  against  a  German 
warship  so  long  as  the  German  fleet  remained  in 
harbour.  On  the  other  hand,  without  command  of 
the  sea  she  is  open  to  invasion.  Even  with  a  great 
fleet,  It  is  yet  to  be  proved  that  she  is  immune  from 
it. 

This  war,  begun  in  19 14,  was  not  the  war  against 


i86        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

England  alone  which  Germany  wanted.  Her  pres- 
ent rage,  her  passionate  hatred  of  England  is  due  to 
our  taking  a  hand  in  a  war  from  which  we  were  to  be 
excluded.  Our  "  treachery  "  represents  our  refusal 
to  let  France  be  crushed,  and  Calais  to  become  a  Ger- 
man port. 

Had  England's  ambitions  been  to  acquire  a  larger 
Colonial  Empire,  she  might,  in  the  spirit  Germany 
has  shown,  have  acquired  it  at  the  expense  of  France 
in  the  days  of  quarrel  with  that  nation,  without  fear 
of  Germany  making  common  cause  against  her. 
Had  her  object  been  to  limit  German  expansion  and 
restrict  her  to  the  position  of  a  purely  European 
Power,  she  would  have  interfered  with  her  develop- 
ment in  the  Far  East,  in  the  Pacific,  or  in  Africa; 
she  would  not  have  helped  to  give  her  a  footing  on 
the  Congo ;  she  would  not  have  allowed  the  German 
navy  to  grow  in  the  days  when,  as  Prince  Biilow  puts 
it,  Germany  lay  at  her  mercy  like  so  much  butter 
before  the  knife. 

England  would  not  grasp  the  knife;  she  was  hope- 
ful, not  to  say  credulous,  of  German  bona  fides.  She 
wished  to  believe  that  Germany  did  not  seek  domin- 
ion through  war,  but  was  a  friend  of  peace.  With 
the  Agadir  incident,  however,  Germany's  policy  was 
unmasked,  and  England  sat  up  and  saw  with  clearer 
eyes.  Slowly,  defiantly,  Germany  came  into  the 
open.  Her  publicists  began  to  speak  out  bluntly  and 
plainly;  among  them  was  Herr  Maximilian  Harden, 
Editor  of  Die  Ztikunft. 

In  19 1 2,  at  Christiania,  on  the  morrow  of  the 
Agadir  incident,  he  thus  delivered  himself  in  a 
speech. 

"  The  German  border  will  become  too  narrow  for  the 
people.     It   is   die  most  stupid   policy  —  and,   therefore,   of 


ENGLAND'S  PEACEFUL  CONSOLIDATION     187 

course,  the  official  policy  —  to  say,  '  We  are  the  most  peace^ 
able  people  in  the  world  and  so  we  require  the  largest  army 
in  the  world,  and  a  reasonably  proportionate  navy.'  Were 
it  only  a  question  of  defending  ourselves  to  an  attack 
from  outside,  we  should  not  need  to  expend  all  these  millions 
in  armaments.  In  order  that  Germany  might  become  a 
Great  Power,  many  nations  had  to  bleed  —  Austria  and 
France,  for  instance.  For  that  reason  alone  it  is  necessary 
for  Germany  not  to  let  her  weapons  rust." 

It  is  unhappily  true  that  Austria  and  France  had  to 
bleed  that  Germany  might  expand  in  Europe;  and 
that  she  might  expand  in  the  larger  world  outside, 
Great  Britain  would  hav^e  to  bleed  and  yield  up  her 
possessions;  for  in  no  other  quarter  could  colonies 
be  secured  which  could  receive  large  white  popula- 
tions. Yet  all  the  time  England  kept  the  peace. 
Of  all  the  Great  Powers,  Russia  only  excepted,  Ger- 
many was  the  most  Immune  against  onslaught  by 
England;  without  aggressive  Intentions,  there  was 
no  country,  as  centuries  of  history  show,  with  which 
she  need  have  less  cause  for  quarrel  than  with  Great 
Britain. 

Why,  Indeed,  should  Britain  cherish  hostile  Inten- 
tions against  any  nation?  She  Is  not  the  "weary 
Titan  "  which  she  had  been  called  so  often.  The 
last  few  months  show  this  at  least;  that  she  has  lost 
nothing  of  the  qualities  by  which  she  has  climbed  to 
greatness.  She  has,  however,  long  felt  that  the  era 
of  growth  had  given  place  to  the  era  of  consolidation. 
That  consolidation  she  sought  to  achieve  by  peaceful 
means.  She  would  weld  her  Empire  by  giving  the 
fullest  freedom  for  each  State  In  her  Empire  to  de- 
velop on  Its  own  lines,  and  draw  near  by  its  own  free 
will.  Unlike  Germany,  her  political  genius  required 
no  stimulation  by  the  shock  of  battle.  It  Is  Indeed 
most  true  —  and  we  are  thankful  for  It  —  that  the 


i88        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Mother's  danger  has  brought  her  children  to  her 
side  with  a  spontaneous  outpouring  of  love  and 
loyalty  such  as  the  world  has  never  seen;  but  we 
would  not  have  welcomed  war  to  be  made  secure  of 
that.  There  were  other  ways  of  reaching  the  goal 
of  Imperial  consolidation.  Since,  however,  the 
shock  of  battle  has  come,  the  genius  of  our  race  has 
drunk  deep  of  a  new  loyalty,  understanding  and  pur- 
pose; it  has  marched  on.  History  may  yet  record 
the  year  19 14  as  the  real  date  of  the  brith  of  the 
British  Empire;  but  it  will  have  been  made  so  by 
the  unforeseen  opportunity  and  accident  which  have 
been  flung  down  from  the  skies  of  fate.  The  true 
foundations  of  Imperial  solidarity  were  laid  in  peace, 
and  in  Peace  England  desired  to  build  upon  them. 
She  was  not  permitted  to  do  so,  and  she  builds  now 
in  another  way.  War's  prodigious  activities  place 
new  constructive  forces  in  her  hands;  shake  loose 
from  the  shores  of  past  caution  powerful  agencies; 
and  she  will  now  confidently  adventure  upon  new- 
charted  seas  of  closer  union  with  her  own  in  all  the 
Seven  Seas. 


CHAPTER  X 

CASUS  BELLI 

It  is  probable  that  since  the  beginning  of  things  there 
has  been  no  week  in  the  history  of  the  world  more 
highly  charged  with  the  oncoming  storm  of  great 
happenings  than  that  which  closed  the  month  of  July, 
19 14.  So  long  as  men  of  this  epoch  have  memory, 
the  negotiations  which  agitated  those  days  will  be 
studied  and  discussed,  and  historians  of  the  future 
will  explore  them  for  light  upon  events  which  trans- 
formed the  world.  The  negotiations  cannot  be 
studied  by  themselves.  As  was  said  in  earlier  pages, 
we  must  go  far  to  find  the  hidden  springs  of  the  great 
tragedy  which  began  with  a  murder,  revolting  the 
world,  and  engaging  for  the  afflicted  Hapsburg  Em- 
peror the  sympathy  of  every  people  and  every  Gov- 
ernment, including  at  least  the  Government  of  Serbia. 
That  the  Serbian  regret  was  genuine  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  Responsible  Serbians  had  a  natural  repug- 
nance for  such  a  shameless  deed,  quickened  by  fear 
of  its  consequences.  With  the  Friedjung  forgeries 
and  the  Prochaska  affair  within  memory,  and  recog- 
nizing that  murder  might  remove  a  man  but_  could 
not  kill  a  system,  their  condemnation  of  Princip's 
hellish  act  could  not  lack  in  sincerity. 

Through  the  foreign  offices  and  Chancelleries  of 
Europe  ran  a  thrill  of  anxiety  as  well  as  of  sym- 
pathy. The  crust  covering  elemental  forces  in 
Southeastern  Europe  is  very  thin,  and  there  were 
signs  that  it  was  giving  way.  A  furious  anti-Serbian 
pogrom  broke  out  in  Bosnia  and  Croatia.     Houses 

189 


I90        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

were  demolished,  there  were  fierce  and  bloody  fights 
between  opposing  parties,  and  lives  were  lost.  In 
Vienna  mobs  threatened  the  Serbian  Legation,  and, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Archduke's  murder,  the  police  ar- 
rangements were  so  "  entirely  inadequate,"  that  it 
seemed  as  though  the  Austrian  Government  were 
approving  spectators  of  the  disorderly  excesses. 

The  Austrian  Press  used  language  of  unbridled 
wrath,  as  was  in  great  degree  natural;  but  some 
papers  at  least  deprecated  pushing  things  too  far. 
The  Neiie  Freie  Presse  said  that  Austria  should  not 
pursue  a  policy  of  revenge ;  the  Neiies  Pester  Journal 
declared  against  making  the  murder  of  the  Archduke 
the  starting-point  of  a  fresh  period  of  friction  be- 
tween Austria  and  Serbia, 

But  strangely  enough  —  and  this  is  important  — 
the  German  Press  was  more  Austrian  than  the  Aus- 
trians  in  its  indignation.  Within  two  days  of  the 
crime,  while  the  facts  remained  obscure,  when  noth- 
ing was  known  except  some  reported  confessions  of 
the  arrested  criminals,  the  Conservative  and  Clerical 
journals  of  Germany  were  using  language  such  as 
had  not  been  heard  since  the  Bosnian  crisis.  It  was 
as  though  there  had  been  no  proposal  on  the  part  of 
Austria  to  make  war  on  Serbia  in  19 13!  The  re- 
sponsibility for  the  crime  was  at  once  fixed  on  Bel- 
grade.^ 

It  was  announced  that  "  Germanism  must  now 
make  a  definite  stand."  In  short,  as  the  Berlin  cor- 
respondent of  The  Times  telegraphed  on  the  first  of 
July,  from  reading  the  newspapers  it  might  easily 

iThe  German  Government  in  its  White  Book  seems  to  adopt 
the  same  attitude.  Princip  is  described  as  a  member  of  a  band  of 
Serbian  conspirators.  He  was,  in  fact,  a  Bosnian,  and  all  the  per- 
sons put  on  trial  seem  to  have  been  Austrian  subjects,  since  the 
charge  against  them  was  one  of  treason. 


EUROPE  WAITS  TO  SEE  191 

have  been  imagined  that  war  was  certain.  The 
statement  was  prophetic,  tliough  the  writer  himself 
refused  to  entertain  the  idea.  This  attitude  of  the 
inspired  Press  of  Germany  in  the  first  phase  of  the 
crisis  should  be  kept  in  mind  when  we  come  to  an- 
alyse the  policy  of  the  German  Government  in  its 
later  fateful  stages.  It  is  wholly  inconsistent  with 
the  later  doctrine,  that  the  question  was  one  to  be 
settled  by  Austria  and  Serbia  alone. 

In  the  diplomatic  correspondence  published  by  the 
various  Governments  there  are  no  documents  cover- 
ing the  first  three  weeks  of  July.  It  is,  nevertheless, 
clear  that  they  were  weeks  of  grave  anxiety  to  the 
world  of  diplomacy,  not  lessened  by  the  fact  that 
the  disinterested  States  were  powerless  spectators. 
They  knew  that  the  worst  might  come.  True,  it  was 
announced  that  the  joint  meeting  of  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  Cabinets  on  the  7th  of  July  was  only  con- 
cerned with  domestic  measures  to  repress  Pan-Serb 
propaganda  in  Bosnia;  but  the  meeting  was  preceded 
by  a  conference  of  ministers  with  the  Chief  of  the 
General  Staff  and  of  the  Navy.  Still,  the  next  day, 
Count  Tisza  made  a  moderate  speech  in  the  Hun- 
garian Parliament;  three  days  later  the  Serbian  Min- 
ister in  Vienna  was  without  apprehension;  while,  on 
the  22nd  of  July,  the  day  before  Austria  sent  her 
ultimatum,  the  Hungarian  Premier  declared  in  Par- 
liament that  the  situation  did  not  warrant  serious  ap- 
prehension or  that  untoward  events  were  probable. 
Coming  after  his  speech  of  the  i6th,  in  which  he 
deplored  war  as  a  sad  ultima  ratio,  but  adding  that 
every  nation  should  be  ready  to  make  war  if  it  as- 
pired to  remain  a  nation, —  as  true  of  Serbia  as  of 
Austria  —  this  was  a  reassuring  declaration.  Last, 
but  not  least,  the  Austrian  Foreign  Minister,  In  con- 
ference with  the  Italian  Ambassador  at  Vienna,  dep- 


192        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

recated  the  suggestion  that  the  situation  was  grave, 
but  said  that  it  ought  to  be  cleared  up.  Indeed,  the 
Russian  Ambassador  at  Vienna,  Count  Schebeko,  in- 
dulged in  a  holiday  beginning  about  the  20th  of 
July,  and  the  President  and  Premier  of  France  had 
gone  to  Russia  a  little  while  before.  It  was  also 
satisfactory  to  learn  of  Germany's  agreement  with 
France  and  Russia,  that  the  Serbian  Government 
was  not  responsible  for  the  murder  of  the  Archduke, 
but  that  she  ought  to  investigate  the  matters  which 
led  to  it  and  put  an  end  to  anti-Austrian  propaganda. 
Still  more  gratifying  was  the  knowledge  that  Serbia 
professed  readiness  to  do  what  she  could  and  took 
in  good  part  the  advice  of  Sir  Edward  Grey  to  be 
moderate  and  conciliatory.^  It  was  necessary  to  wait 
until  Austria  made  her  Intentions  known.  They 
were,  however,  veiled  in  an  obscurity  as  dense  as 
that  which  covered  the  proceedings  of  the  police  in- 
vestigation, or  court  martial,  in  progress  at  Serajevo. 

So  much  for  the  activities  of  the  Powers  of  the 
Entente.  What  was  being  done  by  the  Powers  of 
the  Triple  Alliance?  We  know  that  Italy  was  inac- 
tive, for  her  Allies  kept  her  entirely  In  the  dark; 
but  we  also  know  there  was  that  being  done  at  Berlin 
which  had  a  profound  influence  on  after  events. 
Germany  "  permitted  "  Austria  a  free  hand.^  She 
did  even  more.  She  formed  the  opinion  "  that  no 
civilized  country  possessed  the  right  to  stay  the  arm 
of  Austria  in  this  struggle."  In  view  of  what  hap- 
pened later,  it  is  not  too  much  to  assume  that  she  en- 
gaged to  prevent  such  interference.  In  effect  she 
accepted  a  blank  bill  to  be  drawn  by  Austria. 

The  German  Foreign  Minister  denies  that  Ger- 
many participated  in  Austria's  preparations  or  took 

2  Introduction  to  British  White  Paper. 

3  German  White  Book,  p.  5. 


GERMANY  GIVES  A  BLANK  BILL         193 

any  part  in  her  decisions.  There  are  grounds  for 
rejecting  this  statement.  There  is  every  reason  to 
beheve  that  Herr  von  Tschirscky,  the  German  Am- 
bassador at  Vienna,  telegraphed  the  Austrian  ulti- 
matum to  the  Kaiser,^  then  ostentatiously  cruising  in 
the  Hohenzollern;  and  that  the  document  was  al- 
tered by  His  Majesty.  Subsequently  some  of  its 
terms  were  made  more  exacting;  but  the  time-limit 
was  extended.-^ 

It  is  also  certain  that  the  terms  of  the  Note  were 
known  to  certain  Governments  of  the  German  Em- 
pire. On  July  26th,  Herr  von  Schoen,  German  Am- 
bassador in  Paris,  was  smilingly  assuring  the  French 
Government  that  Germany  had  been  ignorant  of  the 
text  of  the  Austrian  Note;  but  on  the  23rd  of  July 
the  Bavarian  Prime  Minister  had  informed  M.  Al- 
lize,  French  Minister  at  Munich,  that  he  knew  the 
contents  of  the  Note;  and  he  based  on  that  knowl- 
edge the  view  that  it  was  one  which  Serbia  would  ac- 
cept.*^ It  is  incredible  that  Bavaria  should  have 
known  the  terms  of  this  document  and  the  German 
Foreign  Minister  remained  in  ignorance.  Germany 
had  given  the  blank  cheque  and  would  have  to  hon- 
our it;  and  it  is  clear  that  Austria  must  have  kept 
informed  the  Ally  without  whom  she  was  powerless. 
Iwen  were  we  to  admit  that  Germany  declined  to 
know  what  was  in  the  Note  —  on  no  other  supposi- 
tion could  she  have  been  ignorant  of  it  —  it  makes 
her  case  worse;  for  this  would  go  to  show  that  she 
had  resolved  to  fight  and  was  really  careless  on  what 
pretext  war  might  begin.  This  theory,  indeed,  re- 
ceives some  confirmation  from  the  fact  that  on  the 
27th  of  July  Herr  von  Jagow  told  M.  Jules  Cam- 

■*  British  White  Paper,  No.  95. 
^  Dr.  Dillon,  //  Scrap  of  Paper. 
"French  Yellow  Book,  Nos.  21  and  57. 


194        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

bon  that  "  he  had  not  had  time  "  to  read  the  Serbian 
reply,  which  had  been  delivered  to  him  that  morn- 
ing/ No  time !  What  affairs  should  keep  the  Ger- 
man Foreign  Minister  from  reading  a  brief  docu- 
ment on  which  the  issues  of  war  depended,  and  for 
which  Europe  had  been  waiting  with  bated  breath? 
No  time?     Or  no  desire?     Is  the  world  an  ass? 

On  the  20th  of  July,  Sir  Edward  Grey  broke  the 
ominous  silence  by  asking  Prince  Lichnowsky  if  he 
knew  what  was  going  on  in  Vienna.  The  German 
Ambassador  professed  ignorance  beyond  the  fact 
that  Austria  meant  to  take  action,  and  adding  that  it 
would  be  a  good  thing  if  Russia  would  mediate  with 
Serbia.  This  suggestion  conflicts  strangely  with  the 
view  of  Herr  von  Tschirscky,  who  was  surprised 
that  Serbian  affairs  should  interest  Russia;  ^  and  with 
Dr.  von  Bethmann-HoUweg's  opinion  that  Russia 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Austro-Serbian  quarrel.*^ 
In  fact,  only  the  day  after  Prince  Lichnowsky  ad- 
vocated Russian  mediation  the  German  Foreign  Min- 
ister told  Sir  Horace  Rumbold  that  there  should  be 
no  outside  interference;  and  he  supported  this  atti- 
tude by  refusing  to  approach  the  Austrian  Govern- 
ment. The  Governments  of  Europe  were,  however, 
not  left  long  in  ignorance  of  what  Austria  had  de- 
cided to  do.  On  July  23rd  the  curtain  was  raised. 
The  Austrian  Note  was  presented  to  Serbia. 

When,  on  the  same  day.  Count  Albert  Mensdorff, 
the  Austrian  Ambassador  in  London,  informed  Sir 
Edward  Grey  of  the  general  tenor  of  the  Note,  the 
latter  does  not  seem  to  have  been  much  moved. 
The  British  attitude  was  one  of  detachment.  It  was 
admitted  that  Austria  was  under  provocation,  though 

"^  French  Yellow  Book,  No.  74. 
8  British  White  Paper,  No.  94. 
^Ibid.,  No.  71. 


THE  FATAL  TIME  LDIIT  195 

the  evidence  on  which  she  demanded  satisfaction 
from  Serbia  was  unknown.  When  it  was  disclosed 
it  would  be  time  enough  to  consider  the  question. 
So  far  as  England  was  concerned,  the  immediate 
quarrel  was  between  Austria  and  Serbia;  and  she  had 
no  wish  to  interest  herself  in  it  while  it  rem^ained  a 
local  issue  not  affecting  the  general  Near-Eastern 
question.  Sir  Edward  Grey,  therefore,  told  Count 
Mensdorff  that  he  would  express  no  opinions  until 
he  had  seen  the  Note;  and  he  would  probably  have 
to  take  a  little  time  to  consider  it. 

But  when,  in  reply,  he  was  informed  that  the  time 
for  consideration  would  be  limited,  he  took  alarm. ^"^ 
He  agreed  that  the  matter  should  not  be  allowed  to 
drag  on;  and  that  if  Serbia  seemed  dilatory  a  time- 
limit  might  have  to  be  imposed,  say,  after  a  few  days; 
but  a  time-limit  should  only  be  used  in  the  last  re- 
sort. If  it  were  imposed  now  it  would  probably  in- 
flame Russian  opinion,  and  defeat  Its  own  purpose  of 
drawing  from  Serbia  a  satisfactory  reply.  He 
dwelt  upon  the  "  awful  consequences  "  involved  in 
the  situation;  he  explained  how  not  only  the  French 
and  Russian  Ambassadors,  but  others,  had  expressed 
their  fears  of  what  might  happen,  and  how  he  had 
been  asked  to  impress  patience  and  moderation  on 
Russia.  The  Austrian  demands  should  therefore  be 
moderate,  and  there  should  be  time  for  inquiring 
into  their  justifications.  Count  Mensdorff  agreed 
that  the  consequences  might  be  grave,  but  added  that 
all  depended  on  Russia.  Sir  Edward  Grey's  reply 
Is  one  steadily  to  be  borne  In  mind.  He  said  that 
in  times  like  these,  "  It  took  two  to  keep  the  peace 
just  as  ordinarily  it  took  two  to  make  a  quarrel." 

Sir  Edward  Grey  said  this  on  the  assumption  that 

i*>  British  White  Paper,  No.  3. 


196        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Austria  wished  Serbia  to  accept  her  demands  and  had 
no  intention  of  provoking  war.  He  did  not  realize 
what  our  Ambassador,  at  Vienna,  reahzed  on  the 
25th  of  July,  that,  "  The  surrender  of  Serbia  is 
neither  expected  nor  really  desired."  ^^  He  did  not 
suspect  that  the  Austrian  Minister  at  Belgrade  was 
even  then  preparing  for  his  departure,  nor  that  the 
Vienna  mob  would  become  frantic  with  delight  when 
the  Serbian  reply  was  announced.  He  could  not 
imagine  that,  even  before  the  Serbian  reply  was 
handed  to  the  Austrian  Minister,  Herr  von  Jagow 
would  inform  our  Ambassador  at  Berlin  that  "  The 
Austro-Hungarian  Government  wished  to  give  the 
Serbians  a  lesson,  and  they  meant  to  take  military 
action."  ^^  He  did  not  know  that  three  weeks  be- 
fore that  time  Austria  had  issued  notices  calling  re- 
servists abroad  to  the  colours,  and  that  these  notices 
were  even  then  being  received  in  South  Africa. ^^ 
Finally,  with  all  his  astuteness,  he  did  not  then  grasp 
the  fact  that  there  was  a  Power  behind  Austria  which 
desired  war  from  the  very  first;  ^^  or  that,  when  Aus- 
tria and  Russia  had,  at  the  eleventh  hour,  come  to  an 
accommodation  for  more  time,  and  Austria  had 
yielded  to  it  in  order  to  maintain  peace,  Germany 
would  obdurately  declare  war.^^  Some  of  the  illu- 
sions, however,  must  have  been  dispelled  when  he 
saw  the  text  of  the  Austrian  Note  on  July  24th.  He 
described  it  as  the  most  formidable  document  which 
he  had  ever  seen  presented  by  one  State  to  another. ^^ 
It  is  interesting  to  observe  here  what  Germany 
thought  of  the  Note.     On  the  24th  of  July  the  Ger- 

11  British  White  Paper,  No.  20. 

^■^Ihid.,  No.  18. 

1'  Facsimile  of  this  notice  in  Appendix.     No.  III. 

14  British  White  Paper,  No.  141. 

i^  Ibid.,  No.  161. 

16  British  White  Paper,  No.  5. 


AUSTRIA'S  NOTE  TO  SERBIA  197 

man  Government  informed  Sir  Edward  Grey  that  it 
considered,  "  The  procedure  and  demands  of  the 
Austro-Hungarian  Government  as  equitable  and  mod- 
erate." ^^  On  the  same  day  the  German  Foreign 
Minister  admitted  to  Sir  Horace  Rumbold  that, 
"  The  Serbian  Government  could  not  be  expected  to 
swallow  certain  of  the  Austrian  demands";  and 
privately  added  that  the  Note  left  much  to  be  de- 
sired as  a  diplomatic  document. ^^  This  contradic- 
tion between  Herr  von  Jagow's  written  and  spoken 
word  is  typical  of  German  diplomacy  throughout  the 
crisis.  It  finds  a  parallel  in  Dr.  von  Bethmann-HoU- 
weg's  pledge  to  respect  Belgian  neutrality,  given  the 
day  before  Belgium  was  invaded ;  and  in  the  broken 
promise  of  the  Kaiser  to  the  King  and  to  the  Prime 
Minister  of  Belgium  that  the  neutrality  of  that  coun- 
try should  never  be  violated. 

On  the  July  24th  diplomatic  Europe  was  In  a 
state  of  excitement  akin  to  panic.  The  Austrian 
Note  was  indeed  "  formidable  "  beyond  all  expecta- 
tion. It  contained  demands  to  which  an  unqualified 
assent  was  impossible.  To  accede  to  some  of  them 
it  would  be  necessary  to  introduce  legislation.  It 
called  upon  Serbia  to  explain  the  utterances  of  Ser- 
bian ofl'icials,  at  home  and  abroad,  after  the  Serajevo 
crime,  without  giving  their  names  or  reciting  the 
words  used  by  these  officials.  Lastly,  it  called  upon 
Serbia  to  accept  the  collaboration  of  Austrian  offi- 
cials, which  was,  in  effect,  a  proposal  to  abrogate 
Serbian  independence.^'^     The  Note  was  presented 

"  Jbld.,  No.  9. 

^^Ibid.,  No.  18. 

^^  Professor  Delbruck,  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  February, 
191 5,  forgetting  apparently  what  his  official  countrymen  and  other 
apologists  have  said,  frankly  <icclares  tliat  in  his  Ultimatum,  Aus- 
tria demanded  "conditions  which  would  have  placed  Serbia  under 
her  permanent  control." 


198        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

without  indication  of  the  nature  of  the  proposed  po- 
lice inquiry.  It  would  appear  that  its  tone  was  de- 
signedly rude.  When  the  Russian  Charge  d'Af- 
faires,  at  Vienna,  suggested  to  Baron  Macchio  that  it 
was  not  in  accordance  with  international  courtesy  to 
submit  grievances  without  giving  time  for  them  to  be 
considered,  the  Baron  replied  that  "  One's  interests 
sometimes  exempted  one  from  being  courteous."  ^^ 
'That  Is  obviously  true  If  one's  Interests  lie  in  breed- 
ing a  quarrel  rather  than  In  reaching  accommodation. 
Finally,  although  forty-eight  hours  were  given  to 
Serbia  In  which  to  reply,  not  more  than  thirty  hours 
were  given  to  any  other  Powers  for  the  consideration 
of  the  document,  Germany  alone  exempted.  It  Is 
even  alleged  that  important  telegrams  were  deliber- 
ately held  back  In  the  Austrian  telegraph  offices. ^^ 

It  is  important  to  understand  what  Sir  Edward 
Grey  did  on  this  eventful  twenty-fourth  of  July.  He 
wired  to  Mr.  Crackanthorpe  at  Belgrade,  urging 
Serbia  to  give  Austria  satisfaction.  He  saw  the 
French  Ambassador  in  the  morning  and  the  German 
Ambassador  In  the  afternoon.  To  both  he  said  that 
the  nature  of  the  Austrian  Note  made  him  helpless 
to  exercise  any  moderating  influence  on  Russia,  and 
that  he  thought  the  only  chance  of  effective  mediation 
lay  In  common  action  by  Germany,  France,  Italy,  and 
Great  Britain.  Such  a  step  would  enable  Austria 
and  Russia,  even  after  both  had  mobilized  and  Aus- 
tria had  moved  against  Serbia,  to  hold  their  hands 
and  await  the  result  of  negotiations.  The  co-opera- 
tion of  Germany,  however,  would  be  essential. 

On  the  same  day  he  received  from  Sir  George 
Buchanan,22  the  British  Ambassador  at  St.  Peters- 

20  French  Yellow  Book,  No.  45. 

21  Orange  Book,  No.  36. 

22  British  White  Paper,  No,  6. 


ENGLAND  DECLINES  INVITATION       199 

burg,  a  report  of  an  Important  interview  with  M. 
Sazonoff,  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs.  In  that 
interview  M.  Sazonoff  begged  England  to  declare  her 
solidarity  with  the  other  Powers  of  the  Entente. 
He  took  the  view  that  the  extension  of  the  time-limit 
was  the  first  thing  necessary;  but  he  regarded  Aus- 
tria's attitude  as  designedly  provocative.  To  bring 
her  to  a  sense  of  the  reality  of  the  position,  a  state- 
ment by  England  that  she  would  throw  in  her  lot 
with  France  and  Russia  was  essential.  If  war  broke 
out  England  would  Inevitably  be  dragged  In;  by  de- 
claring her  intention  of  going  In,  war  might  possibly 
be  prevented.  To  this  Sir  George  Buchanan  replied 
that  he  did  not  think  the  British  Government  would 
take  that  step,  and  this  reply  was  approved  by  Sir 
Edward  Grey  on  the  following  day. 

While  all  this  was  going  on,  the  Prince  Regent  of 
Serbia  had  telegraphed  to  the  Tsar,  saying  that  Ser- 
bia would  accede  to  the  Austrian  demands  so  far  as 
they  did  not  infringe  Serbian  independence,  and  ask- 
ing His  Majesty  to  interest  himself  in  Serbia's  fate. 
At  the  same  time  the  Berlin  Press  was  strongly  sup- 
porting the  aggressive  line  takeii  by  Austria.  The 
semi-official  Lokal-Anzeiger  was  particularly  violent, 
describing  as  fruitless  any  appeals  which  Serbia 
might  make  to  St.  Petersburg,  Paris,  Athens,  or 
Bucharest,  and  saying  that  the  German  people  would 
breathe  freely  when  they  learned  that  the  situation 
In  the  Balkan  Peninsula  was  to  be  cleared  up  at 
last.""' 

On  July  25th,  Sir  Edward  Grey  was  active  in  in- 
ducing the  Powers  to  join  in  an  effort  for  mediation. 
Without  following  the  negotiations  for  joint  action, 
hour  by  hour,  their  general  course  must  be  under- 

2^  Orange  Book,  No.  7. 


200        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

stood.  From  the  first,  Italy  and  France  were  favour- 
able to  the  proposal;  Russia  offered  to  stand  aside 
while  mediation  was  in  progress,  though  she  doubted 
whether  Sir  Edward  Grey's  efforts  would  be  success- 
ful. "  The  key  of  the  situation,"  said  M.  Sazonoff, 
"  was  to  be  found  in  Berlin."  ^^ 

He  was  right.  Germany  held  the  key,  and  she 
used  it  to  lock  the  door  against  peace.  Her  policy 
was  ambiguous,  shifty,  disingenuous,  and  ulterior. 
Prince  Lichnowsky  told  Sir  Edward  Grey,  on  July 
25th,  that  he  thought  Russia  and  Austria  might  be 
able  with  dignity  to  accept  mediation,  to  which  he 
was  himself  favourable.  At  the  same  moment  Herr 
von  Jagow  was  informing  Sir  Horace  Rumbold  that, 
if  the  relations  between  Austria  and  Russia  became 
threatening,  he  was  quite  ready  to  fall  in  with  the 
suggestion  of  mediation  by  the  four  Powers. 

An  important  event  occurred  on  the  26th:  the 
German  Emperor  suddenly  returned  from  his  Nor- 
wegian cruise.  It  is  said  that  the  German  Foreign 
Office  regretted  this  step,  taken  by  the  Kaiser  on  his 
own  initiative,  fearing  that  it  would  cause  inconven- 
ient speculation,  unrest,  and  excitement.-^  If  it  had 
had  only  that  effect,  it  might  be  passed  over.  But 
it  did  more  than  cause  speculation;  it  caused  a  change 
of  policy.  Within  twenty-four  hours  Germany 
changed  front  respecting  mediation.  Prince  Lich- 
nowsky, being  in  London,  was  not  in  real  touch  with 
the  political  camarilla  in  Berlin.  He  informed  Sir 
Edward  Grey  on  July  27th  —  about  eighteen  hours 
after  the  Emperor's  return  —  that  the  German  Gov- 
ernment accepted  "  in  principle  "  mediation  by  the 
four  Powers  between  Austria  and  Russia. ^^     But  Sir 

24  Orange  Book,  No.  43. 

25  British  White  Paper,  No.  33. 

26  Ibid.,  No.  46. 


ENGLAND  URGES  MEDIATION  201 

Edward  Grey's  telegram,  containing  this  information 
to  Sir  Edward  Goschen,  Britisli  Ambassador  at  Ber- 
lin, crossed  a  telegram  from  the  latter,  telling  him 
that  Germany  had  declined  the  proposed  Confer- 
ence.^'^ 

Here,  then,  we  find  the  German  Government  re- 
fusing on  the  morning  of  the  27th  what  it  had 
accepted  on  the  morning  of  the  26th,  while  the  Ger- 
man Emperor  had  returned  to  Berlin  in  the  interval. 
Not  even  then  was  Sir  Edward  Grey  discouraged. 
He  informed  Germany  that  if  she  objected  to  any- 
thing in  the  proposed  form  of  mediation,  she  was 
free  to  suggest  an  alternative.-^  If  she  thought  a 
Conference,  or  a  discussion,  or  even  a  conversation 
in  London  too  formal,  would  she  suggest  any  other 
means  which  would  counter  the  risk  of  war?  Medi- 
ation could  come  into  operation  by  any  means  Ger- 
many thought  possible  if  only  she  "  would  press  the 
button  in  the  interest  of  peace."  That  was  not  what 
Germany  desired.  Her  delusion  that  Russia  would 
not  show  fight  was  being  dispelled;  and  her  efforts 
were  quickly  directed  to  limiting  the  area  of  con- 
flict. _ 

It  is  clear  that  Germany  was  under  the  impression 
in  the  early  part  of  July,  and,  indeed,  until  negotia- 
tions had  gone  far,  that  the  Powers  of  the  Triple 
Entente  would  not  push  matters  to  war;  that  they 
would  give  way  before  that  last  extremity  was 
reached,  as  they  had  done  in  1909  and  in  191 1. 
She  believed  that  Russia  would  not  fight.-'^  On  July 
28th,  Austria  was  convinced  that  Russia  neither 
wanted  war,  nor  was  in  a  position  to  make  war.  On 
the  26th  the  German  Ambassador  at  Vienna  was 

27  Ihid.,  No.  43. 
2«  Ihid.,  No.  84. 
20  Ibid.,  No.  71. 


202        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

convinced  that  Russia  would  stand  aside  while  Aus- 
tria chastised  Serbia ;  and  he  also  expressed  the 
opinion  that  France  was  not  at  all  in  a  condition  to 
face  a  war."*^  As  for  Great  Britain,  the  unbridled 
anger  which  her  intervention  has  caused  is  the  meas- 
ure of  German  surprise  and  disappointment.  It 
was,  in  fact,  a  cardinal  point  in  Germany's  policy 
that,  in  any  event,  England  would  stand  aside.  But 
there  came  at  last  a  moment  when  it  began  to  dawn 
upon  Germany  that  she  had  made  false  reckoning; 
that  neither  Russia  nor  France  was  certain  to  climb 
down  as  each  had  done  before;  and  that  Great 
Britain's  attitude  was  unexpectedly  firm.  On  the 
July  29th,  Sir  Edward  Grey  gave  Prince  Lichnowsky 
a  friendly  hint  that  there  were  circumstances  under 
which  England  might  be  compelled  to  take  actio-n. 
Certainly  she  would  stand  aside  if  Germany  or 
France  was  not  involved ;  but  he  did  not  wish  to  mis- 
lead him  or  his  Government  into  thinking  that  under 
no  conditions  would  England  remain  inactive. 

When  Germany  realized  that  her  plan  had  been 
based  on  an  illusion,  she  altered  it.  She  took  the 
line  that  the  Austro-Russian  dispute  was  one  to  be 
settled  entirely  by  those  Powers.  Then,  none  too 
cautiously,  she  made  efforts  to  detach  England  and 
France  from  Russia, ^^  and,  failing  this,  she  sought 
later  to  separate  England  from  France;  just  as  later 
still,  when  the  war  was  not  going  to  her  liking,  she 
again  endeavoured  to  seduce  France  from  England's 
side  by  affirming  that  she  had  no  quarrel  with  the 
brave  and  gallant  French  who  had  been  duped  by 
England;  in  war-aphasia  forgetting  that  France 
threw  in  her  lot  with  Russia  before  England  declared 
war.     It  was  all  tortuous,  yet  a  sort  of  aboriginal 

30  British  White  Paper,  No.  32. 

31  Orange  Book,  No.  35. 


GERMANY'S  TWO  FACES  203 

diplomacy,  which  took  no  account  of  human  nature 
and  racial  character. 

From  the  moment  the  Kaiser  returned  to  Berlin 
on  July  26th,  Germany  evidently  made  up  her  mind 
that  Russia  would  fight  if  Serbia  was  to  be  crushed. 
Thenceforth,  her  energies  were  directed  towards  the 
isolation  of  that  country,  which  once  had  been  a 
hunting-ground  for  every  needy  German,  and  every 
carefully-chosen  German  spy;  where  once  German 
influence  had  been  so  great  that  patriot  Russians 
broke  their  hearts  and  ruined  their  cause  in  en- 
deavouring to  combat  it  and  to  govern  Russia  by 
Russians. 

On  no  other  theory  is  it  possible  to  understand 
or  explain  the  policy  of  Germany.  If  she  was 
genuinely  anxious  to  keep  the  peace,  she  knew  it 
could  be  preserved  by  adopting  Sir  Edward  Grey's 
proposal.  She  knew  that  Russia  would  stand  aside; 
she  knew  that  the  Serbian  reply  would  enable  the 
mediators  to  adjust  the  quarrel.  But  she  did  not 
want  the  quarrel  adjusted;  she  was  resolved  to  mould 
South  Eastern  Europe  to  her  own  purposes.  So  she 
rejected  the  proposal  which  would  in  all  probability 
ensure  peace;  and  she  cast  upon  two  Powers  the  task 
which  she  would  not  entrust  to  four. 

The  net  was  cleverly  woven,  but  it  was  clumsily 
spread.  For  while  Germany  kept  pressing  on 
France  and  England  the  duty  of  exercising  influence 
on  Russia,  she  steadily  declined  to  exercise  any  in- 
fluence on  Austria.  On  July  22nd,  she  had  refused 
to  approach  the  Austrian  Government  respecting  the 
nature  of  the  demands  she  would  address  to  Serbia; 
again,  when  Sir  Edward  Grey  asked  her  to  beg 
Austria  to  take  a  favourable  view  of  the  Serbian 
reply,  she  showed  a  curiously  excessive  caution  for 
a  peace-desiring  Government.     She  agreed  to  for- 


204        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

ward  Sir  Edward  Grey's  message,  but  the  words  of 
the  German  Under-Secretary  of  State  are  significant. 
The  German  Government  considered  that,  "  The  fact 
of  their  making  this  communication  to  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Government  impHes  that  they  associate 
themselves  to  a  certain  extent  with  this  hope.  The 
German  Government  do  not  see  their  way  to  going 
beyond  this."  ^- 

It  is  certain  that  Herr  von  Tschirscky  did  not  mis- 
read the  meaning  of  the  message  which  he  presented, 
and  fluttered  no  dovecotes  at  Vienna.  He  told  Sir 
Maurice  de  Bunsen  that  Serbia's  reply  was  a  sham, 
and  that  neither  France  nor  Russia  would  fight. 
From  end  to  end  of  the  correspondence  there  is  no 
sign  that  Germany  ever  tried  to  influence  Austria 
towards  a  mood  of  complaisance.  She  was,  how- 
ever, very  urgent  that  pressure  should  be  put  upon 
Russia;  so  ignoring  Sir  Edward  Grey's  dictum  that 
it  takes  two  to  keep  the  peace  as  much  as  It  takes 
two  to  make  a  quarrel. 

But  the  clearest  proof  that  Germany  never  desired 
a  peaceful  solution  of  the  crisis  will  be  found  in  the 
date  on  which  she  definitely  refused  Sir  Edward 
Grey's  Invitation  to  mediate  between  Austria  and 
Serbia.  Up  to  a  certain  point,  as  has  been  shown, 
she  appeared  willing  to  join  with  the  other  Powers. 
On  July  26th,  she  accepted  the  proposal  in  principle; 
on  the  27th  she  rejected  It  altogether.  In  the  In- 
terval two  things  had  happened:  the  German  Em- 
peror had  returned  to  Berlin  and  the  Serbian  reply 
had  been  made  known.  It  Is  the  latter  event  which 
now  concerns  us. 

The  Serbian  reply  was  unexpectedly  favourable; 
it  went  far  beyond  what  any  of  the  Powers,  Ger- 

32  British  White  Paper,  No.  34. 


SERBIA'S  CONCILIATORY  REPLY         205 

many  not  excepted,  had  thought  probable.  The 
Austrian  Note  had  contained  demands  which  even 
Germany  admitted  Serbia  could  not  accept;  but 
Serbia  did  accede  to  all  except  two,  and  even  these 
she  did  not  definitely  reject.  In  regard  to  them  she 
asked  for  further  information  —  which  was  never 
given.  She  concluded  her  subdued  answer  in  these 
words : 

"  If  the  Imperial  and  Royal  Government  are  not  satisfied 
with  this  reply,  the  Serbian  Government,  considering  that  it 
is  not  to  the  common  interest  to  precipitate  the  solution  of  this 
question,  are  ready  to  accept  a  pacific  understanding,  either 
by  referring  this  question  to  the  decision  of  the  International 
Tribunal  of  The  Hague,  or  to  the  great  Powers  which  took 
part  in  the  drawing  up  of  the  declaration  made  by  the  Serbian 
Government  on  the  i8th  (31st)  March,  1909." 

It  i3  hard  to  see  what  more  Serbia  could  have  done. 
She  said  in  effect,  "  I  am  ready  to  do  all  you  ask 
consistent  with  my  independence.  I  do  not  desire 
quarrel  or  strife;  and  if  anything  in  my  reply  Is  un- 
satisfactory let  our  friends  decide  what  is  fair  and 
right  between  us." 

Germany,  the  master  of  manoeuvres,  the  drill- 
sergeant  of  Austria,  objected  to  arbitration  on  the 
ground  that  it  did  not  coincide  with  Austria's  dignity 
to  go  to  arbitration  with  a  small  State;  as  though 
that  was  not  the  object  of  arbitration  —  to  ensure 
justice  to  States  too  weak  to  enforce  it.  There  are 
numerous  instances  of  arbitration  between  strong 
States  and  weak,  as  when  England  assented  to  arbi- 
tration with  Portugal.  Apart  from  that,  however, 
the  plea  falls  for  this  complete  reason:  in  1909  the 
Great  Powers  had  intervened  between  Austria  and 
Serbia,  and  Austria  did  not  then  object  to  arbitration. 
She  was,  therefore,  debarred  from  making  objection 


2o6        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

when  Serbia  offered  to  submit  the  controversy  to 
those  same  Powers  in  19 14.  Germany  had  no  com- 
punctions, however.  Precedent,  history,  law  or  fair- 
dealing  did  not  weigh  with  her.  Everything  should 
bend  to  her  own  purposes. 

It  has  also  to  be  remembered  that,  on  July  25th, 
the  Austrian  Government  informed  Sir  Edward 
Grey  that  their  Note  was  not  an  ultimatum,  but  a 
demarche,  with  a  time-limit.  This,  in  Sir  Edward 
Grey's  opinion,  made  "  the  immediate  situation 
rather  less  acute."  Naturally  so ;  for,  if  the  Austrian 
statement  meant  anything,  it  meant  that  the  door  was 
not  finally  closed  upon  negotiation.  If,  on  the  25th, 
before  Serbia's  reply  was  received,  the  statement 
seemed  to  make  the  situation  less  strained,  the  posi- 
tion must  have  seemed  infinitely  easier  after  Serbia 
had  sent  her  bravely  submissive  reply. 

Yet  that  was  the  precise  moment  which  Germany 
chose  to  reject  the  mediation  which  she  had  previ- 
ously accepted  "in  principle."  It  comes  to  this: 
Germany  carefully  welcomed  mediation  so  long  as  a 
recalcitrant  reply  was  expected  from  Serbia;  she  re- 
jected it  as  soon  as  Serbia's  reply  made  the  success 
of  mediation  certain. 

The  evidence  is  overwhelming  that  the  fatal  de- 
cision which  has  plunged  the  world  into  war  was 
taken  at  Potsdam  on  the  night  of  the  July  26th. 
Each  year  since  1909  had  been  marked  by  portents  of 
war:  19 13  had  seen  Austria  feeling  for  the  friendly 
hand  of  Italy  for  an  aggressive  war  on  Serbia;  but 
19 14  saw  the  war  launched  at  last  which  was  desired 
by  Austria  for  one  reason  and  by  Germany  for  an- 
other; and  by  both  to  make  South  Eastern  Europe 
Pan-Germanic. 


CHAPTER  XI 

WAR 

In  a  survey  of  intricate  negotiations  in  which  time  is 
measured,  not  by  days,  but  by  minutes,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  maintain  a  strictly  chronological  sequence 
without  dislocating  the  narrative.  In  the  preceding 
sketch  of  the  general  aims  and  actions  of  the  contend- 
ing Powers  it  was  necessary  to  anticipate  events. 
We  must  now  turn  back  to  July  26th,  when  the  Cab- 
inets of  Europe  were  in  possession  of  the  Serbian 
reply. 

On  that  day  the  Serbian  Note  was  published  in 
the  newspapers  of  every  capital  except  Berlin ! 
Throughout  Europe  the  Note  had  been  read  with 
a  feeling  of  relief.  Coupled  with  the  announce- 
ment that  Germany  had  accepted  Sir  Edward  Grey's 
proposal  in  principle,  it  was  felt  that  the  crisis  was 
passing.  If  the  reply  was  as  unsatisfactory  as  the 
German  White  Book  describes  it,  why  was  it  not 
made  known  to  the  German  people  by  Wolff's 
Bureau,  notoriously  the  servant  of  the  Government 
and  having  a  copy  of  the  Note  in  its  possession? 
The  answer  given  by  the  Russian  Charge  d'Afifaires 
at  Berlin,  that  it  was  because  "  of  the  calming  effect 
which  it  would  have  on  German  readers,"  ^  is  the 
only  one  possible.  In  the  circumstances,  the  people 
of  Berlin,  ignorant  of  the  terms  of  the  reply,  demon- 
strated noisily  in  favour  of  Austria  on  July  26th, 
and  even   made   hostile   demonstrations  before   the 

1  Orange  Book,  No.  46. 

207 


2o8        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Russian  Embassy  without  being  checked  by  the 
pohce. 

This  incident  is  noteworthy  as  Indicating  a  new 
trend  in  the  policy  of  Germany.  Hitherto  she  had 
been  content  to  give  Austria  a  free  hand  and  wait  on 
events,  confident  that  Serbia's  reply  would  be  un- 
satisfactory, and  that  trouble  would  come  without 
her  assistance.  From  the  moment  the  Serbian  reply 
was  received,  however,  Germany  abandoned  her  pas- 
sive and  expectant  attitude  for  active  measures  to 
thwart  the  peacemakers. 

The  peacemakers  also  found  that  the  reply  of 
Serbia  compelled  a  new  direction  to  their  efforts. 
Up  to  that  point  they  had  been  employed  to  bring- 
ing Austria  and  Serbia  togCither;  thenceforward  it 
was  a  question  of  bringing  Austria  and  Russia  to- 
gether. The  dispute  was,  indeed,  assuming  wider 
dimensions.  Austria  had  declared  that  she  had  no 
territorial  ambitions  at  the  expense  of  Serbia;  but 
suspicions  as  to  the  ingenuous  nature  of  this  declara- 
tion emerged.  As  mentioned  In  a  previous  chapter,^ 
It  was  not  Impossible  that  Serbia  might  be  compelled 
to  cede  territory  to  the  Balkan  States;  while  there 
was  more  than  a  suspicion  that  Austria  intended  to 
use  the  Serbian  quarrel  to  make  territorial  acquisi- 
tions elsewhere.  On  July  25th,  Sir  Rennell  Rodd 
reported  from  Rome  that  there  was  "  reliable  in- 
formation that  Austria  Intends  to  seize  the  Salonica 
railway."  ^  Four  days  later,  the  British  Charge 
d' Affaires  at  Constantinople  Informed  Sir  E.  Grey 
that  the  designs  of  Austria  might  extend  consider- 
ably beyond  the  Sanjak  and  a  punitive  occupation  of 
Serbian  territory.  The  Austrian  Ambassador  had 
spoken   "  of  the  deplorable   economic  situation  of 

2  See  chap,  vii  of  this  book. 

3  British  White  Paper,  No,  19. 


i 


RUSSIA  FACES  AUSTRIA  209 

Salonlca  under  Greek  administration,  and  of  the  as- 
sistance on  which  an  Austrian  army  could  count  from 
a  Mussulman  population  discontented  with  Serbian 
rule."^ 

These  were  indications  of  Austrian  designs  which 
Russia  could  not  ignore.  Apart  from  them,  how- 
ever, she  had  a  direct  and  profound  interest  in 
Serbia  herself,  recognized  by  Germany.  It  is  true 
that  in  the  course  of  the  negotiations  Germany's  rep- 
resentatives pretended  surprise  that  Russia  should 
feel  any  concern  in  Serbia's  affairs,  but  the  German 
White  Book  shows  how  insincere  were  such  expres- 
sions.    Thus  the  White  Book: 

"  We  were  perfectly  aware  that  a  possible  warlike  attitude 
of  Avstria-Hungary  against  Serbia  might  bring  Russia  upon 
the  field."  ° 

It  well  might.  Russia  had  practically  created 
Serbia;  as  a  Slav  Power  the  interests  of  the  Slav 
nations  were  her  concern.  Even  had  the  Russian 
government  been  indifferent  to  them,  the  Russian 
people  would  not  have  shared  their  unconcern.  Just 
as  Austria  pleaded  that  the  force  of  public  opinion 
would  have  made  the  life  of  the  Ministry  not  worth 
a  moment's  purchase  had  they  hesitated  to  exact  satis- 
faction; so  the  Russian  Government  could  plead  that 
Slav  opinion  would  have  swept  them  from  power  had 
they  abandoned  Serbian  interests. 

Therefore,  from  the  moment  Austria  broke  off 
diplomatic  relations  with  Serbia,  she  found  herself 
face  to  face  with  Russia.  Had  she  consented  to  ex- 
tend the  time-limit  at  first,  had  she  accepted  the 
Serbian  suggestion  of  arbitration,  Russia  would  have 
remained    Inactive;    but    she    refused.     Upon    that 

4  British  White  Paper,  No.  82. 
''  German  White  Book,  p.  4. 


210        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Russia  said:  "Since  you  will  talk  no  longer  with 
Serbia,  perhaps  you  will  now  discuss  the  matter  with 
me.  If,  however,  you  do  not  care  to  do  that,  I 
will  step  aside  while  you  talk  it  over  with  mutual 
friends." 

That  offer  Austria  refused,'^  and  declared  war 
against  Serbia  on  July  28th.  The  attitude  of  the 
German  Government  at  this  time  was  astonishing. 
On  the  28th  Dr.  von  Bethmann-Hollweg  told  Sir 
Edward  Goschen  that  he  was  trying  to  get  Austria 
to  discuss  the  matter  with  Russia;  adding,  however, 
his  agreement  with  Austria's  view  that  her  quarrel 
with  Serbia  was  entirely  her  own  concern  and  that 
Russia  had  no  standing  in  the  business.'''  It  is  not 
probable  that,  holding  such  views,  the  German  Chan- 
cellor's representations  to  Austria  were  more  than 
languorous.  They  practically  amounted  to  this : 
that  Austria  should  proceed  with  the  punitive  ex- 
pedition, but  should  inform  Russia  that  it  was  under- 
taken merely  to  secure  guarantees  of  good  behaviour 
from  Serbia,  and  that  it  had  no  territorial  designs.^ 
This,  and  this  only,  constituted  those  gigantic  efforts 
to  secure  peace  on  which  then  and  afterwards  the 
German  Chancellor  laid  such  stress. 

There  came  a  moment  when  he  took  much  credit 
for  preaching  moderation  to  Austria;  but  it  is  a  sig- 
nificant fact  that  the  world  has  never  been  given  a 
glimpse  of  the  despatches  containing  those  admoni- 
tions. What  actually  did  Dr.  von  Bethmann- 
Hollweg  say  to  Count  von  Berchtold?  What  was 
the  latter's  reply?  If  there  are  any  despatches 
which  embody  such  admonitions,  let  them  be  pub- 
lished, for  they  would  be  of  great  value  to  Germany 

« British  White  Paper,  No.  74. 
■^  Ibid.,  No.  71. 
8  Ibid.,  No.  75. 


THE  WAY  OF  THE  PEACEMAKER        211 

in  showing  that,  as  is  loudly  asserted,  she  was  the 
victim  of  foreign  hatred  and  ambition. 

On  July  29th  Dr.  von  Bethmann-HoUweg  acknowl- 
edged Sir  Edward  Grey's  "  efforts  in  the  cause  of 
general  peace,"  but  though  he  "  appreciated,"  he  did 
not  emulate  them.  He  allowed  himself  to  be  easily 
discouraged.  On  that  same  day  he  told  our  Am- 
bassador that  he  found  he  had  to  be  very  careful 
about  giving  advice  to  Austria.  He  was  of  opinion 
that  any  pressure  put  upon  her  was  likely  to  drive 
her  to  extremes.  He  was  not  sure  that  the  mere 
fact  of  his  forwarding,  without  comment,  Sir  Edward 
Grey's  suggestion  that  the  Serbian  reply  "  offered  a 
basis  of  discussion  "  had  not  precipitated  the  declara- 
tion of  war.'^ 

This  is  deeply  interesting,  and  worth  careful  con- 
sideration. If  Austria  was  so  sensitive,  how  came  it 
that  before  she  dealt  with  Serbia  she  consulted  Ger- 
many and  obtained  from  her  "a  free  hand"?  If 
Germany  was  on  such  intimate,  not  to  say  paternal 
terms,  as  to  give  her  a  free  hand,  and  to  promise  to 
stand  by  her,  it  is  extraordinary  that  she  could  not 
take  the  liberty  of  advising  her  to  be  moderate  and 
prudent,  especially  as  her  own  interests  were  in- 
volved. The  German  White  Book  admits  that  Ger- 
many knew  that  she  might  be  drawn  into  war  by 
Austria's  action.  It  was  poor  evasion,  as  so  much 
German  diplomacy  has  been.  Dr.  von  Bethmann- 
Hollweg's  contentions  might  have  some  validity  if 
Germany  had  stood  aloof  from  the  affair  from  the 
beginning;  but  it  is  merely  ridiculous  —  and  menda- 
cious—  in  the  face  of  what  Germany  had  already 
done  and  known. 

The  German  Chancellor  feared  that  undue  pres- 

»  British  White  Paper,  No.  76. 


212        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

sure  might  drive  Austria  to  extremes.  In  the  light 
of  subsequent  revelations  this  statement  was  unblush- 
ing hypocrisy.  When  he  made  it  he  knew  that  Aus- 
tria was  bent  on  going  to  extremes.  He  knew  that 
she  had  proposed  to  attack  Serbia  in  August,  19 13, 
because  Austria  had  told  Germany  so,  and  the  Italian 
Government  had  remonstrated  with  him  on  the  sub- 
ject. Even  the  horse-marines  would  not  be  so 
credulous  as  to  believe  he  did  not  know  in  June,  19 14, 
that  Austria  was  calling  in  her  reservists  from 
abroad;  that  she  was  making  last  preparations  for 
the  struggle  which  had  been  for  years  in  contempla- 
tion. 

We  now  come  to  a  phase  in  the  negotiations  of 
vital  Importance.  On  July  29th  Sir  Edward  Grey 
had  an  interview  with  Prince  Lichnowsky,^*^  to  whom 
he  showed  a  telegram  from  Rome  in  which  the  Mar- 
quis di  San  Giuliano,  then  Italian  Foreign  Secretary, 
put  forward  an  important  proposal.  The  Austrian 
Government  had  Issued  an  official  analysis  of  the 
Serbian  reply,  detailing  the  points  in  which  It  ap- 
peared unsatisfactory;  the  Italian  Minister  con- 
sidered much  of  this  criticism  quite  childish,  but  there 
was  one  passage  which  opened  a  way  to  a  settlement. 
The  Serbian  Charge  d'Affaires  at  Rome  said  that  if 
only  Austria  would  explain  the  mode  in  which,  under 
Clauses  5  and  6,  Austrian  agents  were  to  intervene 
in  Serbia,  Serbia  might  accept  the  whole  Austrian 
Note;  and  in  the  Austrian  analysis  it  was  stated  that 
the  co-operation  of  Austrian  agents  was  for  investiga- 
tion only,  not  for  judicial  or  administrative  measures. 

Here,  then,  was  a  clear  opening  for  settlement. 
If  Austria  thought  It  beneath  her  dignity  to  give  this 
explanation  to  Serbia,  why  should  she  not  at  once  give 

10  British  White  Paper,  No.  90. 


THE  INFAMOUS  PROPOSAL  213 

it  to  the  four  Powers,  who  could  then  advise  Serbia 
to  accept  without  conditions?  Sir  Edward  Grey- 
drew  the  attention  of  Prince  Lichnowsky  to  this. 
He  said  that  as  to  mediation  between  Austria  and 
Russia,  it  should  not  take  the  form  of  asking  Russia 
to  stand  aside  while  Austria  was  left  free  to  go  as 
far  as  she  liked.  He  agreed  that  Austria  should 
not  be  humiliated;  on  the  other  hand  Austria  should 
not  humiliate  Russia;  though,  of  course,  there  would 
be  distinct  humiliation  of  Serbia.  He  pointed  out 
the  danger  of  a  general  war,  and  again  urged  that 
the  matter  be  referred  to  the  four  Powers,  leaving 
it  to  Germany  to  suggest  the  form  of  the  mediation. 

There  were  thus  two  roads  to  peace:  (i)  Dis- 
cussion between  Austria  and  Russia;  (2)  reference 
to  the  four  Powers.  Russia,  be  it  noted,  was  willing 
to  accept  either. 

After  Prince  Lichnowsky  had  left  him  on  the  29th, 
Sir  Edward  Grey  telegraphed  the  substance  of  the 
interview  and  the  proposal  for  mediation  to  the 
British  Ambassador  at  Berlin.  No  doubt,  in  send- 
ing the  despatch,  he  was  hopeful  that  he  was  at  last 
about  to  succeed;  because  the  Italian  message  seemed 
to  show  a  way  out,  and  because  Prince  Lichnowsky 
had  closed  the  interview  by  "  saying  emphatically 
that  some  means  must  be  found  of  preserving  the 
peace  of  Europe."  In  this  telegram  Sir  Edward 
Grey  used  the  words  that  — 

"  Mediation  was  ready  to  come  into  operation  by  any  method 
that  Germany  thought  possible,  if  only  Germany  would  press 
the  button  in  the  interests  of  peace." 

That  telegram  was  sent  about  4  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  of  July  29th.  The  German  response  was 
prompt.  Late  that  night  the  German  Chancellor 
sent  for  the  British  Ambassador.     Dr.  von  Beth- 


214        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

mann-Hollweg  had  just  come  from  Potsdam.  Hot 
from  an  interview  with  his  Imperial  master,  he  at 
last  drew  aside  the  veil  behind  which  German  policy 
had  been  silently  at  work.  Let  Sir  Edward  Goschen 
tell  the  story  of  that  fateful  midnight  interview:  ^^ 

"  I  was  asked  to  call  upon  the  Chancellor  to-night.  His 
Excellency  had  just  returned  from  Potsdam. 

"  He  said  that  should  Austria  be  attacked  by  Russia  a 
European  conflagration  might,  he  feared,  become  inevitable, 
owing  to  Germany's  obligations  as  Austria's  ally,  in  spite  of 
his  continued  efforts  to  maintain  peace.  He  then  proceeded 
to  make  the  following  strong  bid  for  British  neutrality.  He 
said  that  it  was  clear,  so  far  as  he  was  able  to  judge  the  main 
principle  which  governed  British  policy,  that  Great  Britain 
would  never  stand  by  and  allow  France  to  be  crushed  in  any 
conflict  there  might  be.  That,  however,  was  not  the  object 
at  which  Germany  aimed.  Provided  that  neutrality  of  Great 
Britain  were  certain,  every  assurance  would  be  given  to  the 
British  Government  that  the  Imperial  Government  aimed  at 
no  territorial  acquisitions  at  the  expense  of  France  should  they 
prove  victorious  in  any  war  that  might  ensue. 

"  I  questioned  His  Excellency  about  the  French  colonies, 
and  he  said  that  he  was  unable  to  give  a  similar  undertaking 
in  that  respect.  As  regards  Holland,  however,  His  Excel- 
lency said  that,  so  long  as  Germany's  adversaries  respected  the 
Integrity  and  neutrality  of  the  Netherlands,  Germany  was 
ready  to  give  His  Majesty's  Government  an  assurance  that 
she  would  do  likewise.  It  depended  upon  the  action  of 
France  what  operations  Germany  might  be  forced  to  enter 
upon  in  Belgium,  but  when  the  war  was  over,  Belgian  integ- 
rity would  be  respected  if  she  had  not  sided  against  Germany. 

"  His  Excellency  ended  by  saying  that  ever  since  he  had 
been  Chancellor  the  object  of  his  policy  had  been,  as  you  were 
aware,  to  bring  about  an  understanding  with  England ; 
he  trusted  that  these  assurances  might  form  the  basis  of  that 
understanding  which  he  so  much  desired.  He  had  in  mind  a 
general   neutrality   agreement    between    England    and    Ger- 

11  British  White  Paper,  No.  85. 


WHAT  HAPPENED  AT  POTSDAM        215 

many,  though  it  was  of  course  at  the  present  moment  too  early 
to  discuss  details,  and  an  assurance  of  British  neutralitj^  in 
the  conflict  which  the  present  crisis  might  possibly  produce, 
would  enable  him  to  look  forward  to  realization  of  his  desire. 

"  In  reply  to  his  Excellency's  inquiry  how  I  thought  this 
request  would  appeal  to  you,  I  said  that  I  did  not  think  it 
probable  that  at  this  stage  of  events  you  would  care  to  bind 
yourself  to  any  course  of  action,  and  that  I  was  of  opinion 
that  you  would  desire  to  retain  full  liberty. 

"  Our  conversation  upon  this  subject  having  come  to  an 
end,  I  communicated  the  contents  of  your  telegram  of  to-day 
to  his  Excellency,  who  expressed  his  best  thanks  to  you." 

Such  was  the  proposal  made  by  the  German  Chan- 
cellor within  twelve  hours  of  the  declaration  of  his 
Ambassador  in  London  that  every  effort  should  be 
made  to  preserve  the  peace  of  Europe;  forty-eight 
hours  after  he  had  authorized  Prince  Lichnowsky  to 
declare  that  Germany  accepted  mediation  in  prin- 
ciple; and  twenty-four  hours  after  he  said  that  he 
was  asking  Austria  to  give  the  assurance  against  ter- 
ritorial aggrandizement  which  the  Italian  Govern- 
ment and  Sir  Edward  Grey  believed  would  clear  the 
situation.  Well  might  M.  Sazx)noff,  the  Russian 
Foreign  Minister,  declare  on  July  28th  that  he  was 
sure  Germany  favoured  Austria's  uncompromising 
attitude,  and  had  used  no  influence  to  modify  it.^^ 

It  is  not  difl^cult  to  reconstruct  the  interview  which 
had  taken  place  between  Dr.  von  Bethmann-Hollweg 
and  the  Kaiser.  While  the  Serbian  crisis,  and  the 
complications  between  Austria  and  Russia,  were  hold- 
ing the  attention  of  the  Cabinets  of  Europe,  the  talk 
of  Kaiser  and  Chancellor  was  of  war  with  France; 
of  the  creation  of  a  World-Empire  by  the  seizure  of 
French  Colonies;  of  "hacking  their  way  through" 
Belgium  regardless  of  all  sacred  obligations.     It  was 

1-  British  White  Paper,  No.  54. 


2i6        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

not  now  a  question  of  allowing  Austria  a  free  hand, 
or  even  of  holding  off  Russia  while  she  vindicated  her 
rights  against  Serbia;  it  was  a  cold  calculation  of 
what  Germany  herself  was  going  to  make  out  of  the 
trouble,  and  how  she  could  make  it  with  the  minimum 
of  danger. 

Sir  Edward  Grey  received  the  account  of  the  inter- 
view about  midnight  on  the  29th.  The  next  day  he 
telegraphed  a  peremptory  refusal  of  the  proffered 
bargain. ^^ 

"  Your  telegram  of  29th  July. 

"  His  Majesty's  Government  cannot  for  a  moment  enter- 
tain the  Chancellor's  proposal  that  they  should  bind  them- 
selves to  neutrality  on  such  terms. 

"  What  he  asks  us  in  effect  is  to  engage  to  stand  by  while 
French  colonies  are  taken  and  France  is  beaten,  so  long  as 
Germany  does  not  take  French  territory  as  distinct  from  the 
colonies. 

"  From  the  material  point  of  view  such  a  proposal  is  un- 
acceptable, for  France,  without  further  territory  in  Europe 
being  taken  from  her,  could  be  so  crushed  as  to  lose  her  posi- 
tion as  a  Great  Power,  and  become  subordinate  to  German 
policy. 

"  Altogether  apart  from  that,  it  would  be  a  disgrace  for  us 
to  make  this  bargain  with  Germany  at  the  expense  of  France, 
a  disgrace  from  which  the  good  name  of  this  country  would 
never  recover. 

"  The  Chancellor  also  in  effect  asks  us  to  bargain  away 
whatever  obligation  or  interest  we  have  as  regards  the  neu- 
trality of  Belgium.  We  could  not  entertain  that  bargain 
either." 

The  German  offer  has  been  described  by  Mr. 
Asquith  as  "  infamous."  It  was  not  only  infamous 
in  itself,  a  worthy  product  of  the  "  Poison  Booth," 
as  the  German  Foreign  Office  is  called  by  its   fa- 

13  British  White  Paper,  No.  loi. 


SIR  EDWARD  GREY  REPLIES  217 

miliars,  but  It  was  a  dire  affront  to  Great  Britain. 
Perhaps  It  Is  not  surprising  that  the  authors  of  such 
a  plot  were  beyond  understanding  that  others  might 
still  have  old-fashioned  prejudices  of  honour  and 
good  conduct;  but  if  they  had  had  a  little  of  the  great 
Frederick's  cunning  or  Bismarck's  subtility,  they 
would  net  have  so  brazenly  proposed  prostitution  of 
a  nation's  honour  to  those  unused  to  vicious  practices. 
In  the  face  of  this,  Germany  calmly  asked  England 
to  stand  aside  while  the  main  obstacle  to  her  own 
ruin  was  removed.  Human  impudence  never  swung 
freer  of  all  anchors. 

And  for  the  loss  of  her  security  and  her  honour 
what  was  England  to  obtain?  The  rich  rewards  of 
a  friendly  under  standing  zvith  Germany!  The  same 
suggestion  had  been  made  before  during  the  discus- 
sions on  the  reduction  of  armaments.  But  there  was 
a  difference  between  the  suggested  bargain  of  those 
days  and  that  of  July,  19 14.  We  were  asked  then 
to  pledge  ourselves  to  general  neutrality  that  a  tem- 
porary retardation  of  shipbuilding  might  be  gained. 
We  were  now  asked  to  barter  away  our  interests  and 
our  honour  for  something,  as  to  which,  the  Chancel- 
lor artlessly  remarked.  It  was  much  too  soon  to  dis- 
cuss the  details.  We  were  to  give  all,  for  what? 
For  a  promise  of  something  undefined;  a  promise 
given  by  men  who,  In  the  same  breath,  were  proclaim- 
ing their  contempt  of  promises  and  treaty  engage- 
ments. 

It  is  clear  from  the  terms  of  his  reply  that  Sir 
Edward  Grey  was,  as  every  honourable  man  would 
be.  Indignant  that  such  an  offer  should  be  made;  but 
he  did  not  allow  his  Indignation  as  a  man  to  blind 
him  to  his  duty  as  a  statesman  seeking  the  way  of 
peace.  The  natural  man  might  well  have  said,  "  If 
you  think  It  worth  while  to  be  friends  with  us,  whom 


2i8        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

by  your  offers  you  show  you  consider  fools  and 
knaves,  we  do  not  desire  the  friendship  of  men  who 
affront  us  by  such  degrading  proposals  and  who  are 
capable  of  conceiving  them."  What  the  British 
statesman  did  say  in  effect  was  this :  — 

We  cannot  buy  your  friendship  at  the  price  of  our 
honour  and  our  interests,  but  we  are  ready  to  give  our 
friendship  as  the  price  of  European  peace.  If  you 
want  us  to  be  your  friends,  help  us  to  keep  the  peace; 
if  we  succeed  in  doing  so,  our  mutual  relations  will 
be  improved  and  strengthened. 

But  that  was  not  all.  Sir  Edward  Grey  not  only 
made  an  appeal  of  great  dignity,  but  he  gave  a 
promise  of  which  history  will  take  note.  Here  it  Is 
in  his  own  words:  ^^ 

"  And  I  will  say  this:  If  the  peace  of  Europe  can  be  pre- 
served, and  the  present  crisis  safely  passed,  my  own  endeavour 
will  be  to  promote  some  arrangement  to  which  Germany  could 
be  a  party,  by  which  she  could  be  assured  that  no  aggressive 
or  hostile  policy  would  be  pursued  against  her  or  her  allies 
by  France,  Russia,  and  ourselves,  jointly  or  separately.  I 
have  desired  this  and  worked  for  it,  as  far  as  I  could,  through 
the  last  Balkan  crisis,  and,  Germany  having  a  corresponding 
object,  our  relations  sensibly  improved.  The  idea  has  hith- 
erto been  too  Utopian  to  form  the  subject  of  definite  proposals, 
but  if  this  present  crisis,  so  much  more  acute  than  any  that 
Europe  has  gone  through  for  generations,  be  safely  passed,  I 
am  hopeful  that  the  relief  and  reaction  which  will  follow  may 
make  possible  some  more  definite  rapprochement  between  the 
Powers  than  has  been  possible  hitherto." 

So  long  as  the  accepted  canons  of  right  and  wrong 
hold  good,  until  they  are  supplanted  by  Nietzsche's 
haw  of  the  Superman  and  Treitschke's  inverted  dog- 
mas, that  despatch  of  July  30th  will  stand  as  a  model 
of  national  morality.     In  simple  words,  stripped  of 

14  British  White  Paper,  No.  loi. 


THE  DECISIVE  INTERVIEW  219 

all  diplomatic  reservations,  England  offered  as  the 
price  of  peace  now  an  arrangement  which  would 
guarantee  the  peace  of  Europe  for  years  to  come. 
No  citizen  of  the  British  Empire  can  read  those 
words  without  pride;  seeing  what  has  happened,  few 
men  of  any  nation  can  read  them  without  emotion. 

But  when  Sir  Edward  Goschen  read  them  to  the 
German  Chancellor  on  the  morning  of  July  31st  they 
left  him  cold.  He  was,  "  So  taken  up  with  the  news 
of  the  Russian  measures  on  the  frontier  "  that  he 
received  the  communication  without  remark.^^  His 
mind,  he  said,  was  so  full  of  grave  matters  that  he 
could  not  be  certain  of  remembering  all  its  points. 
That  was  a  curious  comment.  If  the  Chancellor  was 
so  overcome  by  the  Imminence  of  war,  his  sensitively 
alert  and  anxious  mind  might  well  have  been  seized 
with  interest  in  a  document  which  offered  him  the 
assurance  of  peace  and  amity.  He  could,  however, 
in  his  agitation,  well  calculated  to  the  moment,  do  no 
more  than  ask  the  British  Ambassador  to  leave  the 
despatch  with  him,  so  that  he  might  think  it  over 
before  giving  his  answer.  Then,  with  Sir  Edward 
Grey's  despatch  in  his  pocket,  he  went  to  see  the 
Emperor  at  Potsdam.  Thrice  in  the  course  of  these 
negotiations  do  we  hear  of  visits  by  the  German 
Chancellor  to  the  Emperor,  and  it  should  be  noted 
that  each  visit  was  followed  by  a  sinister  develop- 
ment. 

Time  had  been  when  William  II  had  apparently 
used  his  Influence  for  peace;  but  of  late  years  acute 
observers  had  discerned  a  change.  As  the  passions 
of  his  people  rose  against  France,  against  Russia, 
against  England,  against  all  who  seemed  to  stand  in 
their  path,  the  Emperor  became  less  able,  or  less 

1'  British  White  Paper,  No.  109. 


220        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

willing,  to  restrain  violent  sentiment.  His  apologists 
say  that  he  wearied  under  the  strain;  less  indulgent 
judges  declare  that  he  had  brought  the  people  to  the 
place  he  haci  prepared  for  them;  but  there  is  no  need 
to  speculate.  It  is  the  fact  that  in  19 13  King  Albert 
of  Belgium  was  convinced  that  his  cousin  of  Germany 
was  no  longer  a  champion  of  peace.  M.  Jules  Cam- 
bon,  who,  besides  being  a  diplomatist,  is  a  profound 
psychological  observer,  records  his  impressions  in  a 
despatch  of  overwhelming  interest.  He  tells  how 
during  an  interview  with  King  Albert,  the  Emperor 
appeared  overwrought  and  irritable,  and  adds  that 
he  is  now  less  master  of  his  impatience  than  in  former 
years: 

"  As  the  years  begin  to  weigh  on  William  II,  the  family 
traditions,  the  retrograde  feelings  of  the  Court,  and  above 
all  the  impatience  of  soldiers,  are  gaining  more  ascendency 
over  his  mind.  Perhaps  he  may  feel  I  know  not  vuhat  kind 
of  jealousy  of  the  popularity  acquired  by  his  son,  who  flatters 
the  passions  of  the  Pan-Germans,  and  perhaps  he  may  find 
that  the  position  of  the  Empire  is  not  commensurate  with  its 
power.  ...  If  I  were  allowed  to  draw  conclusions,  I  would 
say  that  it  would  be  wise  to  take  into  account  the  new  fact 
that  the  Emperor  is  growing  familiar  with  an  order  of  ideas 
which  formerly  was  repugnant  to  him."  ^'^ 

It  Is  not  hard  to  see  the  operation  of  this  mental 
change  in  the  Moroccan  incident  of  191 1 ;  in  the  mili- 
tary preparation  of  June,  19 13;  and  in  Austria's 
tentative  proposals  to  Italy  for  an  attack  on  Serbia  in 
August  of  that  same  year.  In  the  light  of  M.  Cam- 
bon's  analysis,  one  can  understand  the  diplomatic 
change  which  followed  the  Kaiser's  return  from  Nor- 
way, and  how  every  meeting  between  him  and  his 
Chancellor  weighted  the  balance  against  peace.     In 

I*'  French  Yellow  Book,  No.  6. 


GERMAN  ULTIMATUM  TO  RUSSIA      221 

the  interview  which  took,  place  on  July  31st  the 
final  decision  was  taken  which  plunged  Europe  into 
war. 

With  Sir  Edward  Grey's  offer  before  them,  the 
Emperor  and  the  Chancellor  sent  an  ultimatum  to 
the  Tsar,  demanding  the  abandonment  of  mobiliza- 
tion against  Austria  as  well  as  Germany,  and  requir- 
ing a  reply  within  twelve  hours.  In  order  to  under- 
stand this  astonishing  act,  it  is  necessary  to  go  back 
a  few  hours;  to  leave  Berlin  and  turn  to  Vienna. 

Germany  had  long  resolved  on  war;  the  time  had 
now  come  according  to  calculation.  There  were,  as 
has  been  shown,  internal  disintegrating  influences 
always  at  work  in  the  Empire  which  could  only  be 
counteracted  by  external  adventures.  The  German 
people  had  been  induced  to  shoulder  heavy  taxation 
by  alluring  promises  of  colonial  expansion.  The 
limit  of  their  tax-paying  capacity  was  nearly  reached; 
there  were  signs  of  reaction.  Opportunity  for  war 
only  was  wanted,  and  that  had  come.  Germany 
doubted  the  willingness  of  the  Powers  of  the  Entente 
to  fight.  Still  more  did  she  doubt  their  readiness  to 
fight.  They  might  talk  big,  but  could  they  or  would 
they  translate  their  words  into  action?  Germany 
had  made  up  her  mind  to  expose  the  pretence,  to 
shatter  the  sham  obstruction  in  her  way,  to  meet 
make-believe  with  reality. 

Austria's  heart  began  to  fail  her,  however,  when 
she  came  to  the  sticking-point;  when  she  saw  the 
magnitude  of  the  operations  to  be  faced.  She  had 
not  reasons  of  domestic  policy  like  those  of  Germany 
to  make  war;  on  the  contrary  her  domestic  condi- 
tions rather  impelled  her  towards  peace.  She  did 
not  even  stand  to  make  so  much  out  of  a  successful 
war,  as  her  ally.  For  her  there  were  no  colonies 
oversea,  there  was  no  mastery  of  Europe  to  achieve : 


222        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

at  the  best  she  would  only  be  "  a  brilliant  second  "; 
the  utmost  she  might  hope  to  gain  was  a  port  on  the 
i^gean  and  perhaps  a  slice  of  Poland  and  Serbia, 
neither  of  them  likely  to  add  to  her  ease  and  comfort. 
To  gain  even  so  much  she  found  before  her  a  tre- 
mendous ordeal.  When  she  received  Germany's 
kind  permission  to  deal  with  Serbia  as  she  pleased, 
the  business  had  not  seemed  formidable.  She  be- 
lieved —  Germany  had  encouraged  her  in  the  belief 
—  that  the  other  Powers  would  of  desire  or  necessity 
stand  aloof,  while  she  had  her  will  of  the  turbulent 
little  State  across  the  Danube.  To  issue  a  peremp- 
tory ultimatum,  to  shell  Belgrade,  to  despatch  a  puni- 
tive expedition  was  no  great  thing.  And  then,  sud- 
denly, the  figure  of  the  Eastern  Colossus  loomed 
across  her  path,  declaring  that  it  would  not  be  now 
as  it  was  in  1909. 

All  at  once  a  conviction  of  danger  seized  her;  she 
shrank  back, — 

"  Like  boys  who  unaware, 
Ranging  the  woods  to  start  a  hare, 
Come  to  the  mouth  of  the  dark  lair 
Where,  growling  low,  a  fierce  old  bear 
Lies  amidst  bones  and  blood." 

Perhaps  the  idea  began  to  dawn  upon  her  that  she 
had  been  a  catspaw,  the  blind  tool  of  German  am- 
bitions. Whatever  the  cause,  Austria  began  to  abate 
her  former  austerity.  She  consented  to  enter  into 
direct  conversations  with  the  Russian  Government. 

Foreign  Ministers  heaved  a  sigh  of  relief.  Ger- 
many, with  what  sincerity  events  soon  proved,  posed 
for  a  few  hours  as  the  peacemaker  of  Europe,  calling 
all  men  to  witness  the  effect  of  her  influence  upon  the 
bellicose  Cabinet  at  Vienna.  At  Germany's  request. 
Sir  Edward  Grey  telegraphed  to  St.  Petersburg,  hint- 


AUSTRIA  GIVES  WAY  223 

ing  that,  pending  negotiations,  Russia  might  stay  her 
preparations.  The  British  Foreign  Secretary  told 
the  German  Government  that.  If  any  reasonable  pro- 
posal were  put  forward  which  would  make  it  clear 
that  Germany  and  Austria  were  striving  for  peace, 
he  would  support  it.  He  would  indeed  go  so  far  as 
to  say  that  If  Russia  and  France  would  not  accept  It, 
England  would  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  the 
consequences.^'^ 

Russia,  on  her  part,  met  Austria  more  than  half- 
way. Wearied  by  his  disappointed  efforts  for  peace, 
M.  Sazonoff  eagerly  seized  the  chance  offered  him. 
He  promptly  offered  to  stop  military  preparations,  If 
Austria,  recognizing  that  the  Serbian  question  had 
become  a  matter  of  interest,  would  declare  her  readi- 
ness to  eliminate  from  her  ultimatum  such  points  as 
violated  the  sovereign  rights  of  Serbia. ^^  He  went 
further  than  this.  On  Sir  Edward  Grey's  sugges- 
tion, he  modified  his  formula.  He  offered  to  stay 
military  preparations  if  Austria  would  allow  the 
Great  Powers  to  decide  what  satisfaction  Serbia 
could  give  to  Austria  without  Impairing  her  inde- 
pendence or  rights  as  a  sovereign  State. ^^  These 
conditions  Austria  accepted.  She  agreed  to  submit 
the  points  which  menaced  Serbian  independence  to 
mediation.  On  July  31st  she  had,  In  fact,  yielded 
on  all  the  points  in  dispute.-'* 

But  the  British  Ambassador  at  Vienna  noted  that, 
as  the  relations  between  Austria  and  Russia  Im- 
proved, the  tension  between  Germany  and  Russia 
increased.  He  does  not  conceal  his  belief  that, 
throughout,  Herr  von  Tschirscky,  the  German  Am- 

'''^  British  White  Paper,  No.  ui. 

^*  Orange  Book,  No.  60. 

i'-*  Ihid.,  No.  67. 

20  British  White  Paper,  No.  161. 


224        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

bassador  at  Vienna,  had  been  the  dark  spirit  of  the 
play.  His  suspicions  proved  to  be  well  founded. 
The  German  Emperor  and  his  Chancellor  knew  that 
Austria  and  Russia  had  virtually  reached  an  agree- 
ment; they  had  been  told  by  Austria  that,  despite 
Russia's  mobilization,  In  appreciation  of  England's 
efforts  for  peace,  they  were  ready  to  accept  Sir  Ed- 
ward Grey's  proposal  of  mediation.  They  had  be- 
fore them  Sir  Edward  Grey's  despatches,  one  prom- 
ising not  to  support  France  and  Russia  If  they  were 
unreasonable,  the  other  offering  to  bring  about  a 
friendly  arrangement  between  all  the  Powers,  If  Ger- 
many would  but  bring  the  present  crisis  to  a  peaceful 
issue.  Knowing  all  this,  on  July  31st  they  sent 
Russia  an  ultimatum  peculiarly  domineering  and  of- 
fensive. Russia  was  ordered  to  demobilize,  and  was 
given  twelve  hours  In  which  to  reply.  Lest  that 
should  not  be  enough,  an  ultimatum  was  also  sent  to 
France,  which  asked  for  a  declaration  of  her  inten- 
tions. 

The  hope  of  preserving  peace  had  now  almost 
reached  the  vanishing  point.  But  on  August  ist 
there  still  remained  a  chance  —  the  last  chance  — 
and  Sir  Edward  Grey  tried  hard  to  turn  It  to  account. 
He  telegraphed  to  Sir  Edward  Goschen  saying  that 
Austria  and  Russia  had  agreed  on  mediation,  and 
that  peace  might  still  be  preserved  "  if  only  a  little 
respite  in  time  can  be  obtained  before  any  Great 
Power  begins  war.^^  The  British  Ambassador  at 
once  saw  Herr  von  Jagow.  He  argued  for  a  long 
time  that  the  dispute  was  one  between  Austria  and 
Russia,  and  that  Germany  was  only  drawn  In  as  Aus- 
tria's ally.  If,  then,  the  Powers  most  concerned 
were  ready  to  reach  a  peaceful  settlement,  and  Ger- 

21  British  White  Paper,  No.  131. 


GERMANY  FORCES  THE  ISSUE  225 

many  did  not  desire  war  on  her  own  account,  it  was 
surely  only  logical  that  she  should  hold  her  hand  and 
continue  to  work  for  peace. 

The  reply  of  the  German  Foreign  Secretary  merits 
particular  attention.  It  was,  he  said,  too  late.  Rus- 
sia had  mobilized  and  so  had  Germany.  True, 
Russia  had  offered  to  suspend  further  action.  But 
though  she  could  wait,  Germany  could  not.  Ger- 
many had  the  speed  and  Russia  had  the  numbers. 
Her  safety  lay  in  striking  the  first  blow;  therefore 
she  would  strike.-- 

It  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  Herr  von 
Jagow  that,  in  view  of  the  tentative  arrangement  be- 
tween Austria  and  Russia,  there  was  no  occasion  to 
strike  at  all.  Once  the  dispute  between  Austria  and 
Serbia  was  submitted  to  the  Powers  the  necessity 
for  war  disappeared.  The  decision  of  the  Powers 
would  be  binding  on  all  parties,  and  as  a  matter  of 
fact  the  question  to  be  decided  could  be  reduced  to 
one  point  —  the  preservation  of  Serbian  independ- 
ence. There  was  not  a  State  in  luirope  which  did 
not  agree,  so  long  as  Serbia  was  left  her  sovereign 
rights,  that  she  should  give  satisfaction  for  the  past 
and  guarantees  for  the  future.  England  had  pledged 
herself  to  stand  aloof  If  Russia  and  P^rance  were  un- 
reasonable ;  Russia  had  agreed  that  Serbia  deserved 
punishment.  There  was,  therefore,  really  no  reason 
why  there  should  not  be  an  immediate  demobiliza- 
tion all  round. 

If  that  Idea  did  (jccur  to  the  German  Camarilla 
it  was  contemptuously  dismissed.  They  had  been 
steadily  steering  to  this  point  for  years.  Much  light 
has  been  thrown  on  the  whole  situation  by  the  French 
Yellow  Book  In  which  M.  Canibon,  French  Ambas- 

22  British  White  Paper,  No.  138. 


226        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

sador  at  Berlin,  with  Insight  and  knowledge,  lays  bare 
the  facts  where  German's  relations  to  France  were 
concerned.  His  observations  at  this  point,  as  the 
war-curtain  rings  up,  are  of  the  most  vital  interest. 
So  far  back  as  191 1  the  camarilla  had  even  made  the 
preliminary  step  towards  mobilization,  called  Krie- 
gesgefahr,  and  it  was  repeated  again  in  April,  19 13, 
while  Herr  von  Jagow  was  making  enquiries  as  to 
whether  Russia  had  any  difficulties  In  the  Far  East 
which  might  tie  her  hands  In  Europe.^^  Again,  four 
months  later,  there  had  been  those  threatening  and 
subterranean  proceedings  relative  to  Serbia  exposed 
by  Signor  Giolitti  in  the  Italian  Chamber.  On  each 
of  these  occasions  Germany  had  drawn  back  for  mili- 
tary, naval,  or  financial  reasons,  but  her  retreat  had 
exasperated  German  public  opinion. 

There  was,  Indeed,  as  M.  Cambon  points  out  in  his 
masterly  review  of  German  conditions,  a  Peace  Party 
in  Germany;  and  it  is  certain  that  the  Southern  States 
were  not  unanimous  in  their  approval  of  military  ad- 
venture. All  pacific  influences,  however,  were  only 
a  make-weight  in  political  matters,  "  silent,  social 
forces,  passive  and  defenceless  against  a  wave  of 
warlike  feeling,"  generated  and  fed  by  a  strong  War 
Party  through  varied  and  formidable  agencies. 
Economists  spoke  of  over-population  and  over- 
production, of  markets  and  outlets;  of  being  choked; 
of  England  and  France  blocking  the  way  to  oversea 
dominions.  There  was  a  "  vague  but  deeply  rooted 
conviction  that  a  free  Germany  and  a  regenerated 
France  were  two  historical  facts  mutually  Incompat- 
ible." Others  resented  the  idea  of  talking  on  terms 
of  equality  with  the  country  they  had  conquered  in 
1870. 

23  French  Yellow  Book,  No.  5. 


WHY  THE  GERMANS  WANTED  WAR    227 

The  country  squires  wanted  "  at  all  costs  to  escape 
the  death-duties  bound  to  come  if  peace  continued"; 
to  which  indeed  the  Reichstag  had  agreed  in  prin- 
ciple. The  aristocracy,  menaced  by  the  democratisa- 
tion  of  Germany,  believed  that  only  by  war  could 
their  "  hierarchy  with  the  King  of  Prussia  as  its 
supreme  head  "  be  perpetuated.  The  manufacturers 
of  guns  and  armour  plate,  big  merchants  demanding 
bigger  markets,  banl^ers  speculating  on  the  coming  of 
the  golden  age  and  the  next  war  indemnity  —  all 
these  regarded  war  as  "  good  business," 

The  Universities  swelled  the  martial  chorus;  socio- 
logical fanatics  declared  that  armed  peace  was  a 
crushing  burden  on  the  nation;  and  that  as  France 
stood  in  the  way  of  disarmament  she  must  be  dealt 
with  drastically,  mercilessly,  once  for  all.  His- 
torians, Professors,  joined  in  the  anthem  to  German 
Kiiltiir  and  its  mission  for  the  redemption  of  the 
world. 

Most  dangerous  of  all  —  how  truly  has  M.  Cam- 
bon's  estimate  been  verified !  —  were  those  who  sup- 
ported war  through  rancour  and  resentment:  the 
diplomatists  whose  ineptitude  had  placed  them  "  in 
very  bad  odour  in  public  opinion  " ;  who,  worsted  In 
negotiations,  were  "  heaping  together  and  reckoning 
up  their  grievances." 

The  time  had  come.  M.  Cambon  had  thought 
that,  when  it  arrived,  Germany  would  contrive,  after 
Prussian  tradition,  to  provoke  France  into  aggres- 
sion; but  Herr  von  Jagow  abandoned  the  Bis- 
marckian  diplomacy  for  the  blunt  methods  of  Fred- 
erick the  Great.  To  Sir  Edward  Goschcn  he  laid 
bare  the  whole  scheme  of  planned  aggression  now 
bursting  through  all  restraint.  He  was  but  echoing 
the  words  of  General  von  Moltke,  spoken  fifteen 
months  before : 


228        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

"  We  must  put  on  one  side  all  commonplaces  as  to  the 
responsibility  of  the  aggressor.  When  war  has  become  neces- 
sary it  is  essential  to  carry  it  on  in  such  a  way  as  to  place  all 
the  chances  in  one's  own  favour.  Success  alone  justifies  war. 
Germany  cannot  and  ought  not  to  leave  Russia  time  to 
mobilize,  for  she  would  then  be  obliged  to  maintain  on  her 
eastern  front  so  large  an  army  that  she  would  be  placed  in  a 
position  of  equality,  if  not  of  inferiority,  to  that  of  France. 
Accordingly,  we  must  anticipate  our  principal  adversary  as 
soon  as  there  are  nine  chances  to  one  of  going  to  war,  and 
begin  it  without  delay  in  order  ruthlessly  to  crush  all  resist- 
ance." "* 

To  anyone  dispassionately  reading  the  diplomatic 
correspondence  it  will  appear  that  there  was  much 
more  than  one  chance  in  nine  of  preserving  peace 
when  Austria  made  her  agreement  with  Russia;  that 
the  chances  were  at  least  even  between  peace  and 
war.  But  Germany  did  not  look  at  it  that  way. 
For  her  the  war  was  necessary.  So  General  von 
Moltke  is  said  to  have  declared  to  the  King  of  the 
Belgians,  in  the  presence  of  the  Emperor,  in  No- 
vember, 19 13;  and  It  was  to  be  a  fight  to  the  finish. 

"  This  time  we  must  make  an  end  of  It,"  Moltke 
had  said.^'^     Germany  had  hardened  her  heart. 

All  the  negotiations  for  peace  had  been  a  farce, 
and  the  farce  was  ended  even  before  Herr  von  Jagow 
had  declared  to  Sir  Edward  Goschen  the  non  pos- 
sinnus  which  had  only  been  hidden  till  the  trigger  of 
German  mobilization  was  ready  for  the  Kaiser's 
finger.  The  door  of  the  Foreign  Office  had  scarcely 
closed  upon  Sir  Edward  Goschen,  after  his  last  inter- 
view with  Herr  von  Jagow,  when  Germany  declared 
war  upon  Russia,  and  orders  were  given  for  the  in- 
vasion of  Luxemburg  and  the  seizure  of  British  ships 
at  Hamburg. 

2*  French  Yellow  Book,  No.  3. 
25  Ibid.,  No.  6. 


i 


CHAPTER  XII 

ENGLAND    MOVES 

It  has  been  shown  in  the  preceding  chapters  how  a 
dispute  between  Austria  and  Serbia  developed  into 
a  dispute  between  Austria  and  Russia,  as  was  inevit- 
able. So  long  as  the  quarrel  remained  within  those 
limits  England  was  only  concerned  in  trying  to  bring 
about  an  adjustment  of  differences  and  to  keep  the 
peace.  Though  there  were  difficulties  In  the  way, 
they  did  not  seem  insurmountable.  While  Austria's 
attitude  was  immediately  truculent,  Germany's  pro- 
fessions were  at  first  apparently  pacific.  Russia  had 
no  desire  to  fight;  she  needed  and  wished  for  a  period 
of  tranquillity  for  internal  development.  France 
had  no  present  quarrel  with  either  Austria  or  Ger- 
many. Though  she  might  be  forced  to  fight  in  order 
to  help  her  ally,  she  was  doing  all  she  could  to  pro- 
mote a  peaceful  settlement.  She  was  not  ready  for 
war;  for  cogent  reasons  she  was  averse  to  it.  When 
he  sat  down  to  dinner  on  July  29th  Sir  Edward  Grey 
could  view  the  situation  without  despair,  though  not 
without  anxiety. 

At  midnight  the  whole  situation  had  changed.  Sir 
Edward  Grey  was  in  possession  of  Dr.  von  Beth- 
mann-Hollweg's  *'  infamous "  proposal.  We  can 
imagine  him  in  the  silent  hours  before  the  dawn  view- 
ing with  dismay  the  vistas  of  destruction  which  that 
proposal  had  opened  up.  The  murder  of  the  Arch- 
duke, the  Austrian  Note,  the  Serbian  reply  grew  dim 
In  the  glare  of  the  new  menace.  Even  the  antago- 
nism of  Austria  and  Russia  suddenly  became  small 
beside  the  revelation  of  Germany's  real  designs. 

229 


230        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

She  was  no  longer  the  friend  of  Austria,  resolved 
to  keep  the  ring  while  her  ally  exacted  satisfaction 
for  her  wrongs;  she  was  herself  about  to  become  the 
aggressor  on  her  own  account.  In  the  light  of  Ger- 
many's protestations  that  Austria  contemplated  no 
territorial  acquisitions  in  the  Balkans,  it  was  curious 
and  significant  that  she  herself  now  proclaimed  the 
intention  of  grasping  at  a  vast  colonial  Empire  be- 
longing to  another  country.  If  her  plans  did  not 
miscarry,  instead  of  France  bound  to  us  by  the  un- 
derstanding of  1904,  we  were  to  have  Germany, 
threatening,  unfriendly  and  unscrupulous,  as  our 
neighbour  in  Indo-China,  West  Africa,  and  the  Pa- 
cific. She  was  to  dominate  the  Western  Mediter- 
ranean from  Morocco  and  Algiers,  while  she  used 
Salonica  as  a  base  in  the  Eastern  sea  and  pushed  her 
railways  to  the  Persian  Gulf.  What  then  became 
of  our  road  to  India;  of  the  secure  peace  of  our 
Eastern  dependencies? 

That  France  should  be  ravaged  and  her  commerce 
destroyed  was  a  hideous  outlook;  but  In  addition 
there  was  innocent  Belgium,  to  whom  we  werfe 
pledged  by  every  tie  of  interest,  sentiment  and  hon- 
our, standing  in  the  path  of  an  enemy  without  faith 
or  shame  in  international  dealing.  Having  given 
her  pledge  to  Belgian  neutrality,  would  she  keep 
it? 

Behind  all  lay  the  question  of  the  very  existence 
of  the  British  Empire  itself.  When  Germany  had 
accomplished  the  designs  for  which  she  had  been 
preparing  all  these  years,  bringing  them  at  last  to  the 
maturity  "  of  the  blond  beast  of  prey  "  behind  the 
screen  of  the  Austro-Serbian  negotiations,  how  long 
would  it  be  before  England's  turn  came?  Sir  Ed- 
ward Grey  must  have  felt  like  one  wandering  in  a 
fog  on  some  volcano,  when  the  mists  suddenly  rise, 


I 


DIES  IRM  231 

and  he  finds  himself  on  the  crater's  edge  with  the 
devouring  fires  below  him.  He  saw  Europe,  the 
world,  as  he  had  known  it,  dissolving  in  a  cataclysm 
of  universal  war. 

We  have  seen  how  he  tried  to  meet  the  emergency, 
how  great  a  bid  he  made  for  peace;  how  he  strove, 
not  even  to  the  eleventh  hour,  but  until  the  hands 
were  pointing  to'  the  twelfth,  to  bring  Russia  and 
Austria  to  terms;  and,  indeed,  how  he  succeeded, 
only  to  find  all  lost  by  Germany's  declaration  of  war 
against  Russia  and  her  invasion  of  Luxemburg. 

It  was  Sunday,  the  second  of  August.  People  In 
numberless  churches  of  these  islands  were  praying 
that  there  might  be  peace  in  their  time,  knowing  as 
they  prayed  that  the  issue  hung  on  a  thread;  fearing 
war,  hating  it,  but  conscious  that  there  was  some- 
thing more  precious  even  than  peace  —  the  Empire, 
with  all  it  stands  for,  the  honour  of  the  nation,  the 
faith  of  the  thousand  years.  There  was  unusual 
movement  In  the  streets.  Anxious  men  watched  tire- 
lessly the  tape  machines  In  the  clubs.  They  knew 
that  the  Cabinet  was  even  then  sitting  to  make  the 
fateful  decision.  It  was  known  also  that  In  the  Cab- 
inet there  were  discords;  the  names  of  the  dissentient 
Ministers  were  bandied  from  mouth  to  mouth.  At 
last  it  was  announced  that  the  Cabinet  had  broken 
up,  to  meet  again  in  the  evening.  The  day  passed, 
Monday  came,  and  still  England  was  at  peace. 

But  the  thread  was  now  wearing  very  thin. 
After  the  Cabinet  Council  on  Sunday  morning.  Sir 
Edward  Grey  gave  M.  Cambon,  the  French  Ambas- 
sador in  London,  the  following  Memorandum: 

"  I  am  authorized  to  give  an  assurance  that,  if  the  German 
fleet  comes  into  the  Channel  or  through  the  North  Sea  to 
undertake  hostile  op)erations  against  French  coasts  or  ship- 
ping, the  British  fleet  will  give  all  the  protection  in  its  power. 


232        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

This  assurance  is,  of  course,  subject  to  the  policy  of  His  Ma- 
jesty's Government  receiving  the  support  of  Parliament,  and 
must  not  be  taken  as  binding  His  Majesty's  Government  to 
take  action  until  the  above  contingency  of  action  by  the  Ger- 
man fleet  takes  place."  ^ 

The  Foreign  Secretary  was  careful  to  explain  the 
meaning  of  this  to  M.  Cambon.  The  Government 
did  not  feel  that  they  could,  necessarily,  bind  them- 
selves to  declare  war  upon  Germany  In  case  of  con- 
flict between  her  and  France;  but  they  were  prepared 
to  give  the  above  assurance,  so  that  France  might 
make  her  naval  dispositions  in  the  Mediterranean 
with  the  knowledge  that  her  Northern  and  Western 
Coasts  were  safe  from  attack.  This  assurance  was 
given  as  an  obligation  of  honour.  When  Germany's 
shipbuilding  policy  had  compelled  England  to  recast 
her  naval  strategy  and  to  concentrate  her  fleets  In  the 
North  Sea,  France  had  relieved  British  embarrass- 
ment by  withdrawing  ships  from  her  Western  and 
Northern  Coasts,  and  concentrating  her  naval 
strength  In  the  Mediterranean.  England's  duty  was 
now  clear.     She  could  not  be  the  Ingrate. 

The  terms  of  Sir  Edward  Grey's  assurance  must 
be  carefully  considered  as  an  indication  of  England's 
policy  throughout  the  negotiations.  While  the 
negotiations  were  proceeding,  It  was  Russia  whom 
Germany  accused  of  having  been  the  cause  of  the 
war;  It  was  Russia's  premature  mobilization  which, 
according  to  Berlin,  rendered  futile  every  effort  to 
restore  the  peace  broken  by  herself.  Once  the  war 
began,  Germany  changed  her  tune.  Thenceforth  it 
was  England  which  brought  about  the  tragedy; 
though  her  representatives  In  America  have  varied 
the  charge  according  to  the  moment's  necessity,  now 

1  British  White  Paper,  No.  148. 


'I 

\ 


ENGLAND,  "  THE  TRAITOR  "  233 

blaming  Russia,  now  England.  According  to  Berlin, 
England,  true  to  her  old  robber  instincts,  sets  Europe 
by  the  ears,  that  she  may  extend  her  dominions  and 
make  them  more  secure.  She  is  "  perfidious  and 
treacherous";  by  which  is  meant  that  she  tricked 
poor,  preoccupied,  honest  Germany  into  war;  that 
she  stood  with  her  Allies  when  she  was  expected  to 
forsake  them,  to  flourish  in  peace  while  they  ago- 
nized.^ 

This  feeling  has  found  frequent  expression  in  Ger- 
man speeches  and  writings,  but  nowhere  more  vigor- 
ously than  in  the  well-known  Berlin  weekly  Kladdera- 
datsch.  Remembering  that  this  paper  holds  in  Ger- 
many the  position  which  Punch  does  in  England,  the 
significance  of  the  following  lines  will  be  appre- 
ciated : 

"  O  Lord  !  I  pray 

By  all  I  cherish 
That  the  Briton  Grey 

Like  Judas  perish ! 
Let  mine  eyes  see 

Before  I  die 
Grey  in  a  hempen  ring 

Dangling   from   on  high, 
And  as  he  swings 

Let  him  descry 
The  German  eagle 

Wheeling  in  the  sky." 

The  charge  against  England,  therefore,  contains 
two  counts  —  that  she  urged  her  friends  into  war; 
that  she  deceived  Germany  into  thinking  that  she  was 
resolved  to  take  no  part  in  it.  The  first  of  these 
charges  is  met  by  the  analysis  of  the  correspondence 
which  has  occupied  the  preceding  chapters.     If  any- 

2  For  important  official  statement,  published  while  this  book  goes 
to  press,  see  Appendix  No.  IV. 


234        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

one  doubts  the  sincerity  of  England's  efforts  for 
peace,  let  him  consider  her  position  in  relation  to  war, 
and  compare  it  with  that  of  Germany. 

The  war  found  Germany  prepared  to  the  last  but- 
ton. Within  a  few  hours  her  troops  were  in  Luxem- 
burg, and  were  massed  along  the  French  and  Rus- 
sian frontiers,  even  if  they  had  not  actually  crossed 
them.  The  authors  of  that  remarkable  book,  The 
Truth  about  Germany,  are  enthusiastic  in  their  paeans 
over  the  swiftness  and  smoothness  of  the  German 
mobilization.  Everything  was  ready;  not  so  much  as 
a  grain  of  dust  lurked  in  the  bearings  of  the  great 
machine.  The  War  Minister  in  Berlin  could,  like 
Von  Roon  in  1870,  lean  back  in  his  chair  and  thank 
heaven  he  could  have  a  little  repose.  But  how  stood 
England  during  the  month  of  July?  Her  fleet  was 
ready,  as  it  ever  is,  and  it  chanced  that,  by  the  acci- 
dent of  a  royal  inspection  —  which,  from  motives  of 
economy,  was  to  take  the  place  of  the  usual 
Manoeuvres  —  It  was  concentrated  and  of  full 
strength.  Yet  the  immediate  part  that  the  British 
fleet  could  play  in  a  Continental  war  was  very  limited. 
It  could,  indeed,  hold  the  seaways  for  British  com- 
merce and  close  them  to  the  enemy;  it  could  secure 
the  food  supply  of  the  British  Islands  and  guard 
them  from  attack.  Having  fulfilled  these  functions, 
however,  it  could  do  little  more.  The  capture  of 
German  Colonies  would  not  end  the  war,  or  have 
any  influence  upon  it.  As  a  weapon  of  offence  it  was 
powerless,  so  long  as  the  enemy's  fleet  lay  In  its  har- 
bours protected  by  mines  and  submarines.  Without 
daring  to  invade  the  precincts  where  even  experts 
tread  warily,  it  may  be  said  that  the  war  has  revealed 
powers  in  submarine  warfare  hitherto  almost  unsus- 
pected, save  by  a  few.  Enough  was  known  or 
guessed,  however,  to  show  that  a  fleet,   like  Eng- 


ENGLAND'S  MILITARY  WEAKNESS       235 

land's,  compelled  to  be  ever  on  patrol,  might  suffer 
proportionately  more  in  a  war  of  attrition  than  an 
enemy  to  whom  the  command  of  the  sea  was  of 
secondary  consideration.  Certainly  it  would  be  so, 
if  the  enemy  would  not  fight.  This,  indeed,  was  the 
view  held  in  Germany.  In  his  book,  The  German 
Enigma,  M.  Bourdon  describes  a  conversation  with 
Count  Reventlow,  who  disbelieved  in  a  naval  war : 

"  England  would  be  running  too  great  risks.  .  .  .  She 
knows  that  she  has  countless  vulnerable  spots  on  the  face  of 
the  globe,  and  that  we  have  none.  She  knows  that  she  could 
not  starve  us  out." 

Thus,  England's  command  of  the  sea,  though  an 
important  factor  in  a  war,  was  not  likely  to  be  such  a 
decisive  factor  as  it  was  in  the  eighteenth  and  nine- 
teenth centuries.  It  was  on  land  that  the  issue  would 
be  decided;  and  how  far  was  England  prepared  to 
play  a  part  in  that  deciding  conflict?  To  speak 
truthfully,  she  was  not  prepared  at  all.  There  was 
an  expeditionary  force  of  which,  it  may  be  said  with- 
out national  bias,  that  in  equipment,  training  and 
personnel  it  was  the  equal  of  any  army  in  the  world, 
ready  to  do  anything  that  man  may  dare.  Outside 
those  150,000  men,  however  —  but  the  advance 
guard  of  a  modern  European  army  —  what  was 
there?  There  was  a  Reserve  below  its  proper 
strength,  though  composed  of  well-trained  men. 
There  was  a  territorial  army,  short  of  officers,  short 
of  men,  wanting  in  field  eciuipment  and  inadequately 
trained.  Its  own  talented  author,  regarding  it  with 
the  indulgent  pride  of  a  parent,  had  always  confessed 
that  it  would  need  six  months'  training  to  make  it  fit 
for  service.  Modern  warfare,  however,  does  not 
give  six  months,  or  six  days,  for  training  men.  It 
docs  not  come  like  a  clumsy  burglar  fumbling  at  the 


236        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

door,  but  like  an  athletic  footpad,  leaping  from  a 
hedge.  England  has,  indeed,  with  amazing  skill 
been  able  to  improvise  armies;  but  the  prudent  states- 
man never  depends  on  an  improvisation  which  when 
successful  almost  amounts  to  a  miracle.  Could  any 
man,  however  much  an  optimist,  have  expected  that 
political  antagonisms,  more  fierce  than  any  England 
has  known  since  1688,  would  be  extinguished  in  a 
night  and  for  the  long  day  of  war,  by  the  sacrificing 
spirit  of  a  great  patriotism?  The  loyal  aid  of  the 
Dominions  was  certain,  though  the  degree  of  assist- 
ance could  not  be  known;  but  who  could  have  fore- 
seen the  splendid  uprising  of  India? 

Great  Britain,  then,  had  to  depend  on  an  army  of, 
say,  200,000  men  —  forces  designed  to  fulfil  her 
bond  to  assist  her  ally  and  defend  Belgium,  should 
the  latter's  neutrahty  be  infringed.  ^  It  was  a  force 
all  too  small  to  give  much  effective  aid  even  for  that 
purpose,  and  hopelessly  inadequate  to  the  require- 
ments of  a  European  war.  As  events  proved,  even 
that  small  army  was  not  able  to  reach  Belgium  in  time 
to  preserve  her  neutrality  from  violation.  ^  It  might 
not  even  have  been  in  time  to  check  the  tide  of  in- 
vasion from  engulfing  Paris  but  for  the  valour  of 
the  Belgian  people  — "  omnium  fortissimi,"  as  one 
of  the  greatest  soldiers  of  all  time  described  them 
nineteen  hundred  years  ago. 

If  the  rulers  of  Great  Britain,  knowing  all  this, 
had  deliberately  planned  and  worked  for  war,  they 
were  not  merely  dishonest  intriguers,  they  were  mad. 
They  were,  however,  neither  mad  nor  dishonest. 
They  made  no  secret  of  their  intense  desire  for  peace; 
but  neither  did  they  attempt  to  delude  Germany  into 
the  idea  that  they  would  keep  the  peace  at  any  price. 
So  far  back  as  July  24th,  M.  Sazonoff  strongly  urged 
Sir  Edward  Grey  to  declare  England's   solidarity 


SIR  EDWARD  GREY'S  WARNINGS        237 

with  Russia,  and  Sir  Edward  Grey  declined.  It  may 
be,  as  was  represented  by  the  Russian  Minister,  that 
the  publication  of  a  formal  alliance  might  have  given 
Germany  pause  and  prevented  the  catastrophe;  but 
who  can  say  ?  Though  Sir  Edward  Grey  rightly  held 
that  British  opinion  would  not  support  such  action 
in  a  quarrel  then,  in  appearance  at  least,  mainly 
Serbian,  he  did  not  conceal  from  Germany  that  cir- 
cumstances might  arise  which  would  compel  England 
to  intervene.  On  July  27th  he  told  the  Austrian 
Ambassador  that,  in  view  of  the  European  situation, 
the  British  fleet  would  not  disperse  that  day,  as  had 
been  intended. 

On  the  29th  he  spoke  more  definitely  to  Prince 
Lichnowsky.  He  told  him  he  had  something  on  his 
mind  which  he  wished  to  say  to  him  in  a  private  and 
friendly  manner.  The  situation  was  very  grave. 
While  it  was  confined  to  the  issues  then  involved, 
Great  Britain  had  no  intention  of  interfering  in  it. 
If  Germany  and  France  became  involved,  however, 
all  European  interests  might  be  drawn  in,  and  then, 
as  he  added  in  relating  this  conversation:  "  I  did 
not  wish  him  to  be  misled  by  the  friendly  tone  of 
our  conversation  —  which  I  hoped  would  continue 
—  into  thinking  that  we  should  stand  aside." 

The  German  Ambassador  asked  him  to  be  more 
explicit.  Sir  Edward  Grey's  reply  deserves  to  be 
remembered.  It  was  that  so  long  as  Germany,  or 
even  France  were  not  involved  there  was  no  question 
of  British  interference;  but  if  British  interests  re- 
quired it,  England  would  intervene,  and  intervene 
quickly.  Again  he  said  that  he  did  not  desire  to  be 
open  to  the  reproach  that  Germany  had  been  in  any 
way  misled  as  to  the  course  England  might  pursue. 
Prince  Lichnowsky  thereupon  said  he  understood  it 
all  perfectly  and  that  Sir  Edward  Grey's  statement 


238        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

coincided  with  what  he  had  himself  given  in  Berlin 
as  his  view  of  the  situation/' 

Sir  Edward  Grey's  declaration  to  Count  Albert 
Mensdorff  and  Prince  Lichnowsky  had  a  profound 
effect  on  Vienna,  as  was  to  be  seen  from  Austria's 
altered  tone  to  Russia.  If  they  did  not  convince  the 
German  Emperor  and  his  Chancellor,  that  is  their 
affair.  If  they  deceived  themselves,  it  is  proof  of 
their  ineptitude  not  of  British  duplicity. 

The  engagement,  therefore,  which  Sir  Edward 
Grey  gave  to  M.  Cambon  on  the  second  of  August 
was  in  entire  conformity  with  the  warning  he  had 
addressed  to  Prince  LichnowsI<:y  on  July  29th.  It 
was  not,  however,  a  definite  pledge  of  alliance  with 
France.  It  was  conditional.  If  Germany  kept  her 
fleet  at  home,  as  she  did  from  prudential  motives  in 
1870,  there  was  no  obligation  on  Great  Britain  to 
fire  a  shot. 

Something  else  happened,  however,  which  com- 
pelled us  to  go  to  war.  At  the  very  moment  that  Sir 
Edward  Grey  was  giving  his  friendly  warning  to 
Prince  Lichnowsky,  the  German  Chancellor  was 
making  his  degrading  proposal  to  Sir  Edward 
Goschen.  In  that  discussion  the  name  of  Belgium 
was  used  for  the  first  time  in  the  course  of  the  nego- 
tiations. Sir  Edward  Grey  lost  no  time  in  inform- 
ing the  German  Government  how  he  would  regard 
an  infraction  of  Belgian  neutrality.  On  July  30th 
he  said  that  England  was  not  prepared  to  bargain 
away  whatever  obligation  or  interest  she  had  in  the 
neutrality  of  Belgium.  On  the  31st  he  invited 
France  and  Germany  to  state  their  intentions  as  to 
Belgium's  neutrality;  on  August  ist  he  told  Prince 
Lichnowsky  that  Germany's  evasive  reply  was  a  mat- 

3  British  White  Paper,  No.  89. 


THE  SWIVEL  OF  THE  WAR  239 

ter  of  very  great  regret,  because  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium  affected  feeling  in  Great  Britain,  which  it 
would  be  hard  to  restrain  were  that  neutrality  vio- 
lated. 

Four  times,  therefore,  once  on  the  general  question 
and  thrice  on  the  specific  point  of  Belgian  neutrality, 
did  Sir  Edward  Grey  w^arn  Germany  that  British 
neutrality  was  not  to  be  counted  on  in  every  circum- 
stance. It  would  now  seem  that  Germany  did  not 
believe  him.  That  is  her  affair.  Perhaps  she 
thought  that  England,  whatever  her  feelings,  could 
not  fight.  If  she  did  think  so,  if  she  preferred  to  be- 
lieve Baron  Kuhlmann  rather  than  the  British  For- 
eign Secretary;  that  again  is  her  affair.  If  she  was 
misinformed,  if  she  misjudged  the  situation  and  mis- 
read the  British  character,  the  responsibility  lies  on 
herself  alone. 

The  Belgian  question  was  in  the  end  the  swivel  on 
which  war  swung.  It  was  that  which  united  the  Brit- 
ish people ;  which  convinced  the  most  pronounced 
Pacifists  that  war  might  have  its  sanctity,  and  that 
England  was  taking  up  arms  in  a  righteous  cause. 

It  is  probable  that,  in  the  end,  the  obligation  of 
friend  to  friend,  and  considerations  of  national 
safety  would  have  drawn  England  into  war  as  the 
ally  of  France,  even  if  no  Uhlan  had  ever  cro'ssed 
the  Belgian  frontier.  But  in  such  an  event  there 
would  have  been  a  strong  party  to  declare  that  we 
were  under  no  binding  obligation;  that  the  point  of 
honour  was  indistinct;  that  our  material  interests 
were  not  so  gravely  threatened  as  to  demand  inter- 
vention; that  those  interests  could  be  best  safe- 
guarded by  standing  aloof  while  others  foolishly 
weakened  themselves  by  war.  Those  who  thought 
so  would  have  been  culpably  wrong,  but  many  would 
have  held  that  opinion. 


240        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

When  Belgium  was  invaded,  all  those  doubts  van- 
ished, or  were  held  by  a  faction  insignificant  in  num- 
bers or  influence.  The  moral  sense  of  the  nation 
was  outraged.  There  were  no  longer  questions  of 
material  interest — though  indeed  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium  was  of  vital  interest  —  the  point  of  honour 
was  no  longer  dim;  the  people  recognized  that,  did 
they  now  fail  to  fulfil  their  obligations,  they  would 
lose  their  own  self-respect  and  the  respect  of  every 
upright  man  in  every  country.  The  obligation  which 
our  friendship  imposed  on  us  towards  France  was 
one  to  be  construed  by  each  man  in  his  own  heart 
and  his  own  feelings;  our  obligation  towards  Bel- 
gium, however,  was  one  defined,  not  by  sentiment, 
but  by  the  admitted  code  of  private  honour  and  by 
international  law.  If  Germany  chose  to  disregard 
international  law  and  national  honour;  if  she  chose 
to  measure  British  morality  by  her  own;  if  she  tore 
up  the  treaties  of  1839  and  1870  in  the  belief  that 
Great  Britain,  like  herself,  would  regard  them  as 
*'  scraps  of  paper  ";  it  ill  becomes  her  now  to  com- 
plain of  British  treachery.  Under  what  obligations 
had  Germany  placed  Great  Britain  that  she  should 
describe  as  treachery  to  herself  British  loyalty  to 
solemn  engagements  with  Belgium?  For  let  it  be 
remembered  that  no  engagement  of  alliance  or  neu- 
trality with  Germany  or  France  would  absolve  Eng- 
land from  her  obligation  to  Belgium  under  the 
Treaties. 

Who  that  was  present  will  ever  forget  the  scene  in 
the  House  of  Commons  on  August  3rd,  when  Sir 
Edward  Grey  raised  the  curtain  which  had  hidden 
from  the  world's  view  the  war  negotiations  and  the 
tragic  situation  to  which  they  had  led.  The  House 
was  thronged  in  every  part;  foreign  Ambassadors 
looked  down  from  their  places;  behind  them  the  pub- 


IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS  241 

lie  galleries  were  a  bank  of  white  faces,  all  bent  with 
straining  attention  on  the  man  who  had  held  our 
destinies  in  his  hand  through  anxious  days,  and  was 
now  telling  the  Parliament  of  England  how  he  had 
played  his  part.  He  was  standing,  calm  and  im- 
passive, at  the  table,  a  tall  slight  figure,  his  face,  al- 
ways pale,  bearing  traces  of  anxious  toil.  The 
Chamber  was  full  of  men  who  knew  that  in  their 
hands  now  at  last  lay  a  task  of  supreme  responsibility. 
Excitement  was  in  every  member's  breast,  but  he 
ruled  himself  to  quiet  and  control.  Ministers  were 
grave  with  foreknowledge  and  anxious  as  to  the  ef- 
fect of  the  Foreign  Minister's  speech  on  their  own 
party;  but  no  agitation  showed.  The  air  was  alive 
with  great  emotions,  but  the  man  on  whom  were 
turned  the  eyes  of  all  the  world  seemed  almost 
frigidly  detached  from  the  crisis  in  which  he  moved. 

A  Professor,  lecturing  on  the  economic  policy  of 
the  Gracchi,  could  not  have  shown  less  emotion  than 
did  Sir  Edward  Grey  as  he  sketched  the  history  of 
our  relations  with  France.  He  was  not  an  advocate 
pleading  a  cause;  he  was  a  judge,  impartial,  passion- 
less, severely  exact,  summing  up  a  case.  As  he  went 
on,  the  House,  strained  as  its  attention  was,  seemed 
to  fall  into  his  mood.  Now  and  then  there  was  a 
muttered  "  hear,  hear,"  once  or  twice  there  was^  a 
burst  of  cheers;  but  they  seemed  almost  irregular  in- 
terruptions of  a  judicial  pronouncement. 

Speaking  of  the  proposal  that  England  should 
stand  aside  while  Germany  attacked  France,  he  ana- 
lysed our  obligations  with  the  quiet  authority  and 
scientific  precision  of  a  surgeon  to  his  class  in  a  clinic. 
He  had  his  own  deep  feeling  in  the  matter,  but  he 
would  not  intrude  it.  Let  each  man  construe  the 
point  of  honour  for  himself. 

Next  came  the  question  of  Belgium.     He  had  said 


242        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

no  word  yet  in  reprobation  of  Germany's  now  no- 
torious and  degrading  proposal.  In  lucid  words  and 
with  quiet  authority  he  told  of  the  Treaties,  of  Mr. 
Gladstone's  action  In  1870,  of  the  promise  of  France 
to  respect  the  neutrality  of  Belgium,  of  Germany's 
disquieting  reticence,  of  King  Albert's  moving  ap- 
peal. At  last,  however,  it  seemed  as  though  he  had 
to  exercise  great  will  to  keep  his  feelings  under 
control,  while  he  showed  that,  if  Belgium's  neutrality 
was  violated,  her  independence  would  be  gone  for 
ever,  even  if  her  territorial  integrity  was  left  un- 
touched: 

"  If  her  independence  goes,  the  independence  of  Holland 
will  follow.  I  ask  the  House,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
British  interests,  to  consider  what  may  be  at  stake." 

If  France  was  beaten  to  her  knees,  if  Belgium  and 
then  Holland  and  Denmark  fell  under  Germanic  in- 
fluence, would  there  not  then  be  against  us  an  un- 
measured aggrandizement  of  Germany,  an  incalcu- 
lable menace? 

Then,  still  in  slow  measured  phrase,  he  considered 
what  England  should  do.  Should  she  accept  the 
suggestion  that  by  standing  aside  and  husbanding 
her  strength,  she  would  be  in  better  case  to  intervene 
and  put  things  right,  to  adjust  them,  to  her  point  of 
view  when  the  belligerents  had  fought  themselves  to 
exhaustion?     He  rejected  the  theory. 

"  If  we  run  away  from  these  obligations  of  honour  and 
interest  as  regards  the  Belgian  treaty,  I  doubt  whether,  what- 
ever material  force  we  might  have  at  the  end,  it  would  be  of 
very  much  value  in  face  of  the  respect  that  we  should  have 
lost." 

Reserved  and  controlled  as  was  his  delivery,  the 
great  Assembly  thrilled  at  his  words.     But  he  went 


THE  CONSCIENCE  OF  A  NATION        243 

on  steadily  and  calmly,  though  with  a  new,  searching, 
vital  note  in  his  voice,  to  show  how,  even  in  neutral- 
ity, England  would  suffer.  Then  came  the  climax 
in  words  which  Abraham  Lincoln,  a  master  of  the 
opportune  phrase,  might  well  have  been  proud  to 
use: 

"  I  do  not  believe  for  a  moment  that  at  the  end  of  this  war, 
even  if  we  stood  aside  and  remained  aside,  we  should  be  in  a 
position,  a  material  position,  to  use  our  force  decisively  to  undo 
what  had  happened  in  the  course  of  the  war  .  .  .  and  I  am 
quite  sure  that  our  moral  position " 

The  end  of  that  sentence  was  never  heard.  It 
was  lost  in  the  storm  of  pent-up  emotion  which  swept 
the  House.  The  effect  was  not  the  product  of 
crafty  rhetoric,  it  was  no  response  to  a  well  calculated 
appeal:  it  was  the  conscience  of  a  nation  speaking. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


BRAVE    BELGIUM '*^ 


So  England  went  to  war,  unanimous  as  she  had  never 
been  since  the  days  of  the  Armada;  inspired  as  she 
had  never  been  since  CromwelHan  times  by  the  holi- 
ness of  her  cause.  Her  intervention,  and  still  more 
the  spirit  which  lay  behind  it,  has  been  a  factor  of 
enormous  moment;  it  will  prove  to  be  the  decisive 
factor  in  the  conflict.  Germany  pleaded  military 
necessity,  military  advantage  for  the  invasion  of  Bel- 
gium. Poor  excuses  at  best,  have  they  been  proved 
valid  by  events?  Would  not  Germany  to-day  be  bet- 
ter off  holding  the  narrow  front  from  Belgium  to 
Switzerland,  and  free  to  hurl  her  armies  against  War- 
saw, than  as  she  is,  her  navies  impotent,  her  armies 
reduced  to  the  defensive?  The  time  may  come,  with 
better  men  at  the  helm,  and  in  the  better  mood  of  a 
civilization  which  the  Junkers  of  to-day  do  not  under- 
stand, when  Germany,  lamenting  the  violation  of  Bel- 
gium, will  exclaim,  "  I  have  slain  a  man  to  my 
wounding  and  a  young  man  to  my  hurt." 

It  has  been  said  that,  in  making  war  for  the  de- 
fence of  Belgian  neutrality.  Great  Britain  was  moved 
solely  by  self-interest;  that  she  used  the  language  of 
morality  to  cover  and  excuse  her  selfish  policy.  The 
charge  is  made  in  Germany.  A  nation  that  subordi- 
nates moral  obligations  to  self-interest  can  hardly  be 
expected  to  recognize  morality  in  others.  ^  Naturally, 
upon  this  matter  Germany  finds  an  ally  in  Mr.  Ber- 
nard Shaw.  The  writer  who  glories  in  reducing  prin- 
ciples to  terms  of  materialism,  and  can  find  the  satis- 

244 


BRITISH  INTERESTS  245 

faction  of  his  sardonic  humour  in  the  martyrdom  of 
the  early  Christians,  could  of  course  not  easily  un- 
derstand how  self-interest  may  on  occasion  yield  place 
to  honour,  for  which  men  will  give  their  lives,  Mr. 
Shaw  has  earned  the  gratitude  of  Germany  which 
at  first  bitterly  assailed  him,  "  because  he  was  sus- 
pected of  being  a  British  patriot."  Apparently,  how- 
ever, he  has  purged  hlm.self  of  this  reproach  by  "  ex- 
pressions of  a  critical  character  relating  to  his  coun- 
try " ;  because  the  German  Forwdrts  of  the  nine- 
teenth of  February,  1915,  declares  that,  "To-day 
this  fellow  without  a  country  belongs  to  the  Crown 
Witnesses  of  the  entire  German  Press." 

The  charge  requires  an  answer,  and  it  is  not  far  to 
seek.  Both  Mr.  Gladstone  in  1870,  and  Sir  Ed- 
ward Grey  last  August,  referred  to  England's  inter- 
est in  the  maintenance  of  Belgian  neutrality  as  well  as 
to  her  obligation  of  honour.  Mr.  Gladstone  laid 
down  two  reasons  for  insisting  on  the  execution  of  the 
Treaty  of  1839  —  the  question  of  international  mor- 
ality, and  "  the  common  interest  against  the  unmeas- 
ured aggrandizement  of  any  Power."  Sir  Edward 
Grey  used  similar  language  in  19 14,  when  he  said: 

"  I  ask  the  House  from  the  point  of  view  of  British  inter- 
ests to  consider  what  may  be  at  stakq.  If  France  were  beaten 
to  her  kne<?s,  if  Belgium,  and  then  Holland  and  Denmark  fell 
under  Germanic  influence,  would  there  not  then  be  against 
us  an  unmeasured  aggrandizement  of  Germany,  an  incalcu- 
lable menace." 

From  these  sentences  has  been  drawn  a  picture  of 
England  like  another  Mr.  Pecksniff  dismissing  Tom 
Pinch,  as  a  duty  he  owed  to  society. 

The  point  has  to  be  considered  from  two  aspects: 
the  origin  of  the  Treaty  of  neutrality,  and  the  motive 
which  brought  England  into  the  war.     The  Treaty 


246        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

of  1839  was,  of  course,  not  based  upon  pure  altruism. 
The  Great  Powers  guaranteed  the  neutrahty  of  Bel- 
gium, not  solely  in  her  interest,  but  also  in  their  own; 
and  in  the  interests  of  Europe  as  well.  When,  in 
1 8 15,  the  Congress  of  Vienna  made  Belgium  a  part 
of  the  Kingdom  of  the  Netherlands,  it  was  with  the 
idea  of  creating  a  State  strong  enough  to  keep  the 
important  harbours  of  the  little  kingdom  from  falling 
into  the  hands  of  any  of  the  Great  Powers.  It  was 
done  to  prevent  any  one  Power  from  gaining  an 
undue  and  dangerous  advantage  over  her  neigh- 
bours. It  was  locking  their  doors  at  night  against 
each  other.  The  revolt  of  Belgium  against  the 
Netherlands  in  1830  involved  a  review  of  the  whole 
situation.  Belgium  was  beaten  in  her  Civil  War ;  but 
Europe  decided,  and  rightly,  that  she  should  not  be 
forced  to  retain  a  connection  imposed  upon  her  in 
1 8 15  for  the  general  convenience  of  Europe,  as  much 
as  for  her  own  safety.  Then  came  a  difficulty.  The 
severance  of  Holland  and  Belgium  weakened  both, 
and  the  original  idea  of  a  strong  buffer  State  had  to 
be  abandoned.  How  then  was  the  idea  of  a  buffer 
State,  on  which  all  were  resolved,  to  be  maintained 
at  all?  Holland  was  in  a  position  of  comparative 
security  through  her  geographical  position,  but  Bel- 
gium had  no  such  securit)^;  she  was,  so  to  speak,  on 
the  highway.  For  centuries  she  had  been  the  battle- 
field of  Europe,  both  because  she  was  convenient  for 
the  purpose  and  because  she  was  a  desirable  posses- 
sion. Unless  something  was  done,  she  would  con- 
tinue to  the  end  of  time  to  be  an  international  prize- 
ring.  Undoubtedly  the  misery  of  her  situation  af- 
fected the  decision  of  the  Powers  to  make  her  a 
neutral  State  in  perpetuity,  but  the  controlling  reason 
was  their  resolve  to  make  it  impossible  for  any  State 
—  France  then  was  most  suspect  —  to  possess  itself 


THE  QUINTUPLE  TREATY  247 

of  Antwerp.  Thus  the  neutrality  of  Belgium,  like 
her  union  with  Holland  in  18 15,  had  its  origin,  In 
part,  in  the  self-interest  of  the  Great  Powers.  It 
was,  in  fact,  a  repetition,  In  altered  form,  of  the  Con- 
vention of  the  15th  November,  18 15,  under  which 
English  and  Prussian  garrisons  might  occupy  certain 
fortresses  in  the  Netherlands  in  case  of  trouble  with 
France.  This  itself  was  only  a  modification  of  the 
"Barrier  Treaty"  of  1715,  which  permitted  Hol- 
land to  occupy  certain  Belgian  towns  —  Belgium  then 
belonging  to  Austria  —  for  security  against  a  French 
attack. 

When,  therefore,  Mr.  Gladstone  and  Sir  Edward 
Grey  combined  the  menace  of  aggrandizement  with 
the  consideration  of  moral  obligations,  they  were  ad- 
hering with  the  closest  loyalty  to  the  principle  of 
1839,  a  principle  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  Inter- 
national Law.  The  guarantee  of  Belgian  neutrality 
was  individual  as  well  as  collective,  differing  in  this 
respect  from  the  case  of  Luxemburg,  where  the  guar- 
antee is  collective;  where  the  failure  of  one  guarantor 
to  fulfil  his  contract  relieves  the  other  guarantors  of 
their  obligation.  In  the  case  of  Belgium  the  failure 
of  one  guarantor  does  not  relieve  the  others;  and  this 
was  arranged  of  set  purpose,  to  prevent  a  guarantor 
from  evading  responsibility  for  action  should  any  of 
the  co-signatories  violate  the  agreement.  In  no  dis- 
cussion of  the  violation  of  Belgian  neutrality,  there- 
fore, could  the  question  of  individual  Interests  be 
kept  out  of  sight.  The  maintenance  of  those  inter- 
ests and  opposition  to  repudiation  of  the  guarantee 
were  themselves  obligations  of  honour. 

The  Interests  Involved  In  the  maintenance  of  Bel- 
gium's neutrality  are  both  broad  and  narrow  —  nar- 
row, as  they  affect  the  position  of  an  individual  na- 
tion, broad,  as  they  affect  the  whole  theory  of  the  So- 


248        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

ciety  of  Nations.  Ever  since  Grotius  enunciated  his 
great  theory  —  for  the  first  time  accepted  by  the 
Treaty  of'Westphalia  in  1648  —  there  has  developed 
a  code  of  International  Law  for  the  order- 
ing of  international  relations,  which  is  the  only 
thing  standing  between  the  world  and  anarchy. 
That  Law  rests  on  the  doctrine  that  all  independent 
civilized  States  are  equal  under  it.  These  States  may 
and  must  differ  in  degree  of  strength  and  develop- 
ment; but,  like  individuals  in  a  community,  they 
are  all  possessed  of  equal  rights;  hence  an  agree- 
ment made  between  a  strong  Power  and  a  weak 
Power  is  as  sacred  as  that  made  between  States  of 
equal  strength.  It  is  clear,  however,  that  the  sanc- 
tions of  this  law  are  not  the  same  in  the  case  of  States 
as  with  individuals,  for  there  is  no  supreme  Power 
to  enforce  it.  It  depends  upon  the  maintenance  of 
international  equilibrium,  upon  the  Balance  of 
Power;  for  it  is  obvious  that  if  and  when  any  one 
nation  reaches  an  unchallengeable  supremacy  of 
power  it  is  automatically  freed  from  the  sanctions  of 
International  Law.  The  individual  may  rise  to  the 
greatest  heights  of  dignity  and  wealth,  but  there  is  al- 
ways the  State  to  punish  him  for  wrongs  done  to  his 
fellows.  Not  so  with  the  supreme  State ;  there  is 
none  to  curb  it,  its  only  law  is  the  law  of  its  own  mak- 
ing, as  Treitschke  (and  Machiavelli  before  him) 
cheerfully  maintains. 

There  are  only  two  ways  by  which  international 
anarchy  or  absolutism  can  be  averted,  both  of  them 
dependent  on  the  maintenance  of  the  Balance  of 
Power.  The  first  is  that  the  whole  of  the  world 
shall  be  parcelled  out  in  equal  shares  between  certain 
great  Powers ;  the  other  is  that  the  liberties  and  rights 
of  small  nations  shall  be  respected  and  shall  be  pro- 
tected against  infraction  by  those  interested  in  resist- 


THE  BALANCE  OF  POWER  249 

ing  the  aggressive  State.  The  latter  alternative  is 
that  which  responds  to  every  natural  instinct  of 
justice,  and  it  is  the  one  adopted  by  the  leading  jurists 
of  every  country.  A  high  German  authority,  Geff- 
cken,  strongly  insists  on  the  impossibility  of  safe- 
guarding International  life  where  one  State  has  su- 
preme preponderance  over  all  the  others :  ^  a  calamity 
to  be  avoided  by  other  nations  being  sufficiently 
strong  to  prevent  It.  He  further  holds  that,  since  the 
absorption  of  small  States  must  increase  the  chances 
of  collision  between  the  great  States,  the  preserva- 
tion of  these  small  States  should  be  one  of  the  main 
factors  in  the  true  Balance  of  Power;  always  pro- 
vided that  the  small  States  are  fit  and  able  to  govern 
themselves.  The  modern  Germanic  doctrine,  as  has 
been  abundantly  shown  in  earlier  pages,  runs  directly 
counter  to  these  generally  accepted  ideas.  It  rests  on 
the  theory  that  only  in  Power  does  a  State  reach  its 
highest  morality;  that  weakness  Is  a  vice;  and  that  the 
protection  of  weak  States  by  such  devices  as  arbitra- 
tion is  unscientific,  since  It  opposes  the  doctrine  of  the 
survival  of  the  fittest. 

Many  sins  of  course  have  been  committed  In  the 
name  of  the  Balance  of  Power,  as  many  have  been 
committed  in  the  names  of  Libejrty  and  Religion.  It 
has  been  the  pretext  for  aggressive  war;  it  has  been 
used  to  cover  and  excuse  the  annexation  and  partition 
of  small  States.  In  18 15  it  was  the  reason  for  the 
union  of  Belgium  with  Holland;  but  it  has  also  been 
the  origin  of  wars  which  have  preserved  for  Europe 
all  the  liberty  she  possesses  —  the  Hundred  Years 
War  begim  by  Edward  III;  the  Elizabethan  War 
against  Spain;  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession; 
the  struggles  of  the  eighteenth  century;  the  Napo- 

1  Geffcken.     Note  in  his  edition  of  Europaiscltc  Volkerreclit. 


250        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Iconic  Wars.  Singularly  enough,  in  almost  all  of 
them,  the  possession  of  Belgium  was  a  prime  factor. 
Our  historic  co-operation  with  Belgium  In  the  cause 
of  liberty  against  tyranny  is  indisputable.  For  at 
Waterloo,  Belgian  forces  were  included  in  Welling- 
ton's army,  in  the  iron  determination  to  break  for 
ever  the  power  of  a  monarch  bent  upon  world 
dominion.  That  was  in  1815,  and  a  hundred  years 
afterwards  we  are  breaking  the  ambitions  of  another 
Emperor  who  would  wear  the  giant's  robe  of  the 
universal  ruler.  Such  revolts  against  limitless  ambi- 
tion are  periodical.  They  are  not  simply  material  in 
their  aim;  they  spring  from  something  higher  than 
envy  or  greed;  they  are  Incident  to  evolution.  The 
German,  Ranke,  enunciates  this  truth  in  his  History 
of  the  Popes,  as  follows :  "  When  any  principle  or 
power,  be  it  what  it  may,  aims  at  unlimited  supremacy 
in  Europe,  some  vigorous  resistance  to  It,  having  its 
origin  in  the  deepest  springs  of  human  nature,  Invari- 
ably arises."  The  Emperor  William  would  have 
done  well  to  have  read  his  Ranke  with  more  humility 
and  understanding.^ 

Undoubtedly  it  was  England's  interest  to  protect 
Belgium  and  maintain  European  equilibrium,  as  it 
was  to  Germany's  interest  to  invade  Belgium  with 
the  purpose  of  upsetting  that  equilibrium.  The  dif- 
ference is  this,  that  to  maintain  her  interest  Britain 
kept  the  faith;  to  advance  her  interests  Germany 
broke  her  most  solemn  engagements.  How  far, 
then,  does  the  German  argument  help  the  German 

2  Holzendorff  in  his  Handbook  of  International  Laiv  describes  the 
Treaty  of  London,  which  guaranteed  Belgian  neutrality,  to  be  "  a 
landmark  of  progress  in  the  formation  of  a  European  polity,"  and 
adds  that  "  nothing  could  make  the  situation  of  Europe  more  in- 
secure than  an  egoistical  repudiation  by  the  great  States  of  those 
duties  of  international  fellowship."     Ill;  pp.  93,  109. 


ACCUSES  ENGLAND  251 

cause?     That  England  was   selfish   in  doing  right 
would  not  justify  Germany  in  being  dishonourable. 

But  was  England  selfish?  Was  self-interest  the 
dominant  motive  which  brought  her  into  the  field? 
Dr.  von  Bethmann-HoUweg  has  no  doubt  on  the 
subject.  Assuming  the  authority  of  a  thought- 
reader,  in  the  extraordinary  document  published  in 
New  York  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  January,  19 15,  he 
declares  that  — 

"  England  drew  the  sword  only  because  she  believed  her 
own  interests  demanded  it.  Just  for  Belgian  neutrality  she 
would  never  have  entered  the  war.  That  is  what  I  meant 
when  I  told  Sir  Edward  Goschen  .  .  .  that  among  the 
reasons  which  had  impelled  England  into  war,  the  Belgian 
neutrality  treaty  had  for  her  only  the  value  of  a  scrap  of 
paper." 

It  must  be  said  at  once  with  regret  that  the  German 
Chancellor  is  not  a  credible  witness.  As  Sir  Louis 
Mallet  remarked  of  the  German  Ambassador  at  Con- 
stantinople, "  Every  statement  he  makes  must  be 
received  with  caution."  He  promised  Belgium  to 
respect  her  neutrality  and  broke  his  word;  he  made 
his  famous  speech  of  August  4th,  19 14,  to  the  Reich- 
stag, and  then  tampered  with  it,  because  certain 
words  gave  the  lie  to  excuses  framed  to  justify  the  in- 
vasion of  Belgium;  and  in  this  very  Interview  he  dis- 
credits his  own  rcliabiHty  by  falsely  describing  Yar- 
mouth, Sheringham,  Scarborough  and  Whitby,  as 
"  Towns  equipped  with  arsenals,  batteries  and  other 
military  establishments."  His  account  of  the  inter- 
view with  Sir  Edward  Goschen  Is  a  gross  perversion. 
Not  one  word  did  Herr  von  Bethmann-Hollweg  say 
of  British  interests  In  that  Interview.  It  was  British 
quixotry,  not  British  selfishness,  which  he  arraigned. 
That  this  is  the  correct  reading  of  his  complaint  is 


252        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

proved  by  Sir  Edward  Goschen's  reply  to  the 
harangue.  He  did  not  attempt  to  defend  his  coun- 
try from  the  accusation  of  self-interest,  because  it 
was  never  brought  against  it  by  the  Chancellor. 
What  Sir  Edward  Goschen  said  was  this: 

"  In  the  same  way  as  he  and  Herr  von  Jagow  wished  me 
to  understand  that  for  strategical  reasons  it  was  a  matter  of 
life  and  death  to  Germany  to  advance  through  Belgium  and 
violate  the  hitter's  neutrality,  so  I  would  wish  him  to  under- 
stand that  it  was,  so  to  speak,  a  matter  of  life  and  death  for 
the  honour  of  Great  Britain,  that  she  should  keep  her  solemn 
engagement  to  do  her  utmost  to  defend  Belgium's  neutrality 
if  attacked.  That  solemn  compact  simply  had  to  be  kept, 
or  what  confidence  could  anyone  have  in  engagements  given 
by  Great  Britain  in  the  future." 

That  was  the  moment  for  the  German  Chancellor 
to  have  ridiculed  this  moral  attitude.  But  he  did 
nothing  of  the  kind.  He  asked,  ''  But  at  what  price 
will  that  compact  have  been  kept?  "  Sir  Edward 
Goschen,  in  reply,  said  that,  "  Fear  of  consequences 
could  hardly  be  regarded  as  an  excuse  for  breaking 
solemn  engagements."  ^ 

It  is  further  important  to  observe  that  Sir  Ed- 
ward Goschen's  account  of  his  farewell  interview 
agrees  entirely  with  Great  Britain's  attitude  through- 
out the  pre-war  negotiations.  There  were  four  par- 
ticular occasions  on  which  Sir  Edward  Grey  warned 
Germany  that  British  neutrality  was  not  to  be 
counted  on  in  the  event  of  war.  On  July  29th  he 
gave  a  warning  to  Prince  Lichnowsky  in  quite  gen- 
eral terms  to  the  effect  that  events  might  draw  Eng- 
land In,  though  that  would  certainly  not  occur  if 
neither  Germany  nor  France  were  engaged.-*     On 

3  British  White  Book,  No.  160. 

4  British  White  Paper,  No.  89. 


WARNINGS  TO  GERMANY  253 

July  30th  he  made  his  answer  to  the  *'  infamous  pro- 
posal "  which  affected  both  France  and  Belgium.^ 
On  July  31st  he  asked  France  and  Germany  to  state 
their  intentions  towards  Belgium/'  and  on  August  ist 
he  told  the  German  Ambassador  that  he  very  much 
regretted  the  reply  of  Germany  to  that  request,  "  be- 
cause the  neutrality  of  Belgium  affected  feeling  in 
this  country."  He  added  that  if  Germany  would 
promise,  as  France  had  done,  to  respect  Belgian  neu- 
trality, it  would  materially  contribute  to  relieve  anx- 
iety and  tension  in  Great  Britain.  On  the  other 
hand,  were  one  combatant  to  violate  Belgium  while 
the  other  did  not,  it  would  be  extremely  difficult  to 
restrain  public  feeling  in  the  country.  He  certainly 
could  not  pledge  Great  Britain  to  remain  neutral, 
even  if  Belgian  neutrality  were  respected;  but  the 
Government  would  be  largely  guided  by  public  opin- 
ion, and  public  opinion  would  be  greatly  influenced 
by  the  neutrality  of  Belgium.^  While  Sir  Edward 
Grey  was  using  this  language  to  Germany,  he  was  in- 
forming France  that,  though  Great  Britain  might  — 
perhaps  would  —  be  drawn  into  war  on  her  side,  he 
could  not  give  France  any  pledge  of  assistance.^ 
Even  so  late  as  August  2nd  he  only  gave  a  promise  of 
help  to  France,  contingent  on  certain  naval  activities 
of  Germany,  adding  that, — 

"  The  Government  felt  that  they  could  not  bind  themselves 
to  declare  war  upon  Germany  necessarily,  if  war  broke  out 
between  France  and  Germany  to-morrow." 

On  that  occasion   also  he  made   a  very  striking 
statement.     M.   Cambon  had  asked  him  about  the 

''  British  White  Paper,  No,  loi. 
"  J  hid.,  No.  114. 
■^  Ibid.,  No.  123. 
^  Ibid.,  No.  119, 


254        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

neutrality  of  Luxemburg,  and  to  this  he  assumed  the 
attitude  of  Lord  Derby  and  Lord  Clarendon  in  1 870 ; 
but  when  questioned  about  Belgium,  his  answer  was 
decisive  and  momentous : 

"  I  said  that  was  a  much  more  important  matter ;  we  were 
considering  what  statement  we  would  make  in  Parliament  to- 
morrow —  in  effect,  whether  we  should  declare  violation  of 
Belgian  neutrality  to  be  a  casus  belli."  " 

Throughout  the  negotiations  Sir  Edward  Grey 
was  admirable  in  his  consistency.  He  drew  a  sharp 
difference  between  England's  obligation  to  France 
and  her  obligation  to  Belgium.  The  former  was  one 
of  interest,  yet  he  felt  strongly  the  question  of 
honour;  for  France  had  denuded  her  northern  and 
eastern  coasts  of  naval  protection  in  pursuance  of  the 
policy  of  the  Triple  Entente ;  England's  obliga- 
tion to  Belgium,  however,  was  peremptorily  one  of 
honour,  though,  from  the  standpoint  of  British  inter- 
ests, the  absorption  of  Belgium  by  any  of  the  Great 
Powers  could  not  be  ignored.  Furthermore,  his 
despatches  of  July  29th  and  30th  reflect  with  remark- 
able accuracy  the  position  of  the  nation  at  large. 
There  was  a  considerable  public  which  thought  the 
Government  over-cautious  and  dilatory  in  their  atti- 
tude towards  France;  but  there  was  also  a  section 
which  regarded  It  from  an  opposite  point  of  view. 
As  events  proved,  however,  all  parties  were  united 
in  the  question  of  Belgium. 

This  is  in  the  last  degree  significant.  From  the 
standpoint  of  material  interests  the  maintenance  of 
French  power,  which  In  1875  both  England  and  Rus- 
sia had  declared  should  not  be  crushed  when  Ger- 
many threatened  It  again,  was  more  important  In  one 

»  British  White  Paper,  No,  148. 


MR.  ASQUITH  STATES  THE  CASE       255 

sense  than  the  maintenance  of  the  neutrality  of  Bel- 
gium. The  man  in  the  street  could  argue  that,  even 
if  Germany  annexed  Belgium  —  which  she  _  had 
sworn  not  to  do  —  she  would  only  acquire  a  single 
port  and  a  short  coastline,  very  annoying,  no  doubt, 
but  not  more  formidable  to  England  —  perhaps  not 
so  formidable  —  as  the  occupation  of  the  Pas  de 
Calais  and  the  Cotes  du  Nord.  This  also  was  to 
take  no  account  of  the  complication  and  trouble  which 
would  follow  the  annexation  by  Germany  of  the 
French  Colonies  in  Northern  and  Western  Africa 
and  Indo-China.  From  the  material  standpoint, 
therefore,  the  overthrow  of  France  was  in  the  com- 
mon eye  a  graver  danger  than  the  infraction  of  Bel- 
gian neutrality  —  the  lesser  thing  —  which  united 
the  whole  nation  in  a  demand  for  war.  Why  was 
this?  There  is  only  one  answer  —  because  the  in- 
vasion of  Belgium  by  Germany  established  the  moral 
standard  of  the  war.  It  placed  before  the  people,  as 
nothing  else  could  do,  the  question  of  right  and 
wrong,  of  honour  and  dishonour,  and  bade  them 
make  their  choice.  They  made  it  unhesitatingly, — 
even  those  who  hated  war  most  and  held  that  even 
self-interest  could  never  condone  it  —  because  they 
saw  a  moral  wrong  being  done  which  sanctified  war 
and  made  bloodshed  righteous. 

Never  in  all  our  long  history  did  Minister  more 
truly  represent  the  feeling  of  the  people  than  Mr. 
Asquith  when  he  told  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain 
that  war  had  been  declared: 

"  If  I  am  asked  what  we  are  fip;hting  for  I  reply  in  two 
sentences.  In  the  first  place  to  fulfil  an  honourable  obliga- 
tion which,  if  it  had  been  entered  upon  between  private  per- 
sons in  the  ordinary  concerns  of  life,  would  have  been  re- 
garded as  an  obligation  not  only  of  law  but  of  honour,  which 


256        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

no  self-respecting  man  could  have  repudiated.  I  say,  sec- 
ondly, we  are  fighting  to  vindicate  the  principle  which,  in 
these  days  when  force,  material  force,  sometimes  seems  to  be 
the  dominant  influence  and  factor  in  the  development  of  man- 
kind, we  are  fighting  to  vindicate  the  principle  that  small 
nationalities  are  not  to  be  crushed,  in  defiance  of  international 
good  faith,  by  the  arbitrary  will  of  a  strong  and  overmaster- 
ing Power.  I  do  not  believe  any  nation  ever  entered  into  a 
great  controversy  —  and  this  is  one  of  the  greatest  history  will 
ever  know  —  with  a  clearer  conscience  and  stronger  convic- 
tion that  it  is  fighting  not  for  aggression,  not  for  the  mainte- 
nance even  of  its  own  selfish  interests,  but  that  it  is  fighting  in 
defence  of  principles,  the  maintenance  of  which  are  vital  to 
the  civilization  of  the  world.  With  a  full  conviction,  not 
only  of  the  wisdom  and  justice,  but  of  the  obligations  which 
lay  upon  us  to  challenge  this  great  issue,  we  are  entering  into 
the  struggle." 

One  more  witness  shall  be  called  to  show  how  our 
honourable  obligation  towards  Belgium  has  always 
overborne  the  mere  question  of  self-interest.  Mr. 
Gladstone  Is  accused  of  having  mentioned  the  word 
"  Interest  "  In  connection  with  Belgium,  as  has  been 
already  said;  but  Mr.  Gladstone  of  all  British  states- 
men was  perhaps  the  most  pronounced  In  his  pacifism. 
Not  seldom  In  his  career  did  his  deep  love  of  peace 
sway  his  policy  in  a  direction  dangerous  to  British 
interests.  But  on  the  question  of  Belgium  he  used 
language  not  unworthy  of  Chatham;  and  this  not 
from  the  point  of  British  Interest  but  the  wider  In- 
terests of  civilization.  In  a  letter  to  John  Bright  In 
1870  he  spoke  of  the  violation  of  Belgian  territory  as 
something  which  would  amount  to  an  "  Extinction  of 
public  right  In  Europe."  He  declared  that  England 
could  not  look  on  while,  "  The  sacrifice  of  freedom 
and  Independence  was  In  course  of  consummation." 
Also,  speaking  in  the  House  of  Commons,  he  used 
these  words: 


"  A  VERY  EXCITABLE  CHANCELLOR  "    257 

"  We  have  an  interest  in  the  independence  of  Belgium 
which  is  wider  than  that  which  we  may  have  in  the  literal 
operation  of  the  guarantee.  It  is  found  in  the  answer  to  the 
question  whether,  in  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  this  coun- 
try, endowed  as  it  is  with  influence  and  power,  would  quietly 
stand  by  and  witness  the  perpetration  of  the  direst  crime  that 
ever  attainted  the  page  of  history,  and  thus  become  partici- 
pators in  the  sin." 

Such  were  the  principles  which  in  1870  had  guided 
Mr.  Gladstone.  They  guided  Sir  Edward  Grey  in 
the  negotiations  in  July,  19 14;  and  he  expounded 
them  to  the  nation  on  the  third  of  August  of  that 
year. 

It  was  that  speech  and  its  reception  which,  in  his 
own  words,  "  excited  and  aroused "  the  German 
Chancellor.  As  Sir  Edward  Goschen  described  him 
in  his  account  of  the  famous  interview  of  August  4th, 
"  He  was  excited,  evidently  overcome  by  the  news  of 
our  action,  and  little  disposed  to  hear  reason." 
Herr  von  Bethmann-HoUweg  now  says  (to  the 
American  newspaper)  that  what  so  discomposed  him 
was  "  seeing  the  hopes  and  work  of  the  whole  period 
of  my  Chancellorship  going  for  naught."  It  w^as  not 
because  Germany  was  at  war  with  France  and  Russia 
that  he  was  upset,  because  that  was  already  a  fact; 
but  because  he  saw  Great  Britain  entering  the  lists  on 
their  behalf.  He  bewailed  the  failure  of  his  efforts 
to  reach  an  understanding  with  England,  to  which  the 
United  States  might  later  have  been  a  partner. 
This,  he  declared,  would  have  made  a  general  war 
impossible  and  have  guaranteed  absolutely  the  peace 
of  Europe. 

By  this  statement  alone  may  be  gauged  the  credi- 
bility of  the  German  Chancellor.  The  arrangement 
he  wished  with  Great  Britain  would  not  have  made 
war  impossible,  but  would  have  made  the  victory  of 


258        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Germany  certain.  As  Mr.  Asqulth  pointed  out  at 
Cardiff,^"  England  offered  to  bind  herself  not  to  be 
party  to  any  aggression  against  Germany;  but  she  de- 
clined to  pledge  herself  to  be  neutral  in  case  of  ag- 
gression by  Germany.  Will  anyone,  in  face  of  what 
has  occurred,  believe  that  the  peace  of  the  world 
would  have  been  assured  by  an  arrangement  which 
tied  the  hands  of  Great  Britain  and  left  Germany  ab- 
solutely free  to  do  her  worst?  It  was  the  failure  of 
that  plan  which  shook  the  nerve  of  him  who  plotted 
it,  which  caused  him  such  shocked  surprise. 

Opening  a  history  of  England  well  nigh  at  random, 
he  might  have  read  how  England  had  fought,  regard- 
less of  the  cost,  for  the  independence  of  Belgium  and 
for  the  sanctity  of  treaties  from  1338  to  18 15.  But 
even  dismissing  the  wars  of  Edward  III,  of  Eliza- 
beth and  of  Anne  as  ancient  history,  as  wars  fought 
entirely  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Balance  of 
Power,  he  need  only  have  gone  back  a  century  and  a 
quarter  to  find  Pitt  asserting  the  sanctity  of  inter- 
national obligations.  In  1792  France  annexed  the 
Austrian  Netherlands  and  opened  the  Scheldt,  in 
which  Holland  had  a  monopoly  of  navigation  under 
the  Treaty  of  Westphalia  in  1648.  Horrified  as  she 
had  been  by  the  excesses  of  the  French  Revolution, 
England  had  stood  by  and  had  left  France  to  work 
out  her  own  salvation;  but  when  the  Netherlands  was 
attacked  she  broke  silence  In  words  that  Sir  Edward 
Grey  might  have  used  In  19 14: 

"  England  will  never  consent  that  France  shall  arrogate 
the  power  of  annulling  at  her  pleasure,  and  under  the  pre- 
tence of  a  pretended  natural  right,  of  which  she  makes  herself 
the  sole  judge,  the  political  system  of  Europe,  established  by 

10  Mr.  Asqulth,  speech  at  Cardiff,  October  2nd,  19 14.  See  ch.  ix 
of  this  book. 


ENGLAND'S  CONSISTENCY  259 

solemn  treaties  and  guaranteed  by  the  consent  of  all  the  Pow- 


"  11 


For  that  principle  she  went  to  war  with  the  Re- 
public. Eleven  years  later  Napoleon  threatened  the 
independence  of  Holland  and  Switzerland.  The  one 
was  England's  rival  in  commerce,  in  the  latter  she 
had  no  interest  at  all;  but  their  independence  and 
neutrality  had  been  guaranteed  by  treaty;  and  Great 
Britain  demanded  that  those  treaties  should  be  re- 
spected. Napoleon  answered,  like  the  present  Ger- 
man Chancellor,  "  Holland  and  Switzerland  are  only 
trifles."  Possibly  they  were,  In  comparison  with  Na- 
poleon's Empire;  but  on  behalf  of  those  small  na- 
tionalities England  entered  upon  a  war  which  lasted 
for  nearly  eleven  years.  Then,  as  now,  she  fought 
for  a  scrap  of  paper.  Had  the  nickel  Napoleon  of 
Potsdam  read  wisely  the  history  of  his  great  proto- 
type, his  Chancellor  might  not  have  been  so  aghast 
with  surprise  In  August  last. 

Dr.  von  Bethmann-Hollweg  may  not  be  an  his- 
torian, but  he  presumably  knows  something  of  the 
work  of  his  own  Foreign  Oflice  during  the  last  half 
century.  He  knew  the  view  England  took  of  the 
Treaty  of  1839  in  1870;  how,  at  the  Instance  of  Mr. 
Gladstone,  temporary  treaties,  reaffirming  Belgian 
neutrality,  were  made  between  England  and  Germany 
on  the  one  side  and  England  and  France  on  the  other. 
Those  treaties  were  remarkable  in  their  nature.  Un- 
der them  England  bound  herself,  If  either  belligerent 
violated  Belgian  neutrality,  to  co-operate  with  the 
other.  She  did  not  "  count  the  cost";  she  did  not 
study  on  which  side  her  advantage  lay,  she  was  ready 
to  fight  with  France  or  with  Germany  on  the  one 
simple   Issue  —  the  Treaty  of    1839.      If,   with  all 

^1  Cambridge  Modern  History,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  304. 


26o        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

these  things  before  him,  the  Chancellor  still  doubted 
the  influence  of  honour  on  British  policy,  if  to  him 
her  action  was  "  unthinkable,"  he  must  blame  his  own 
ignorance  or  his  own  moral  obliquity  for  the  fatal 
mistake. 

The  weight  of  evidence  goes  to  show  that  it  was 
the  morality  of  the  Chancellor  which  was  at  fault. 
So  little  could  he  comprehend  the  attitude  of  Great 
Britain  that  he  described  her  action  as  cowardly  and 
treacherous,  saying  that,  "  It  was  like  striking  a  man 
from  behind  while  he  was  fighting  for  his  life."  It 
is  quite  true  that  Germany  is  fighting  for  her  life. 
That  is  because  she  had  not  expected  England  to  join 
Russia  and  France.  On  her  own  estimate  she  would 
not  have  been  fighting  for  her  life  if  the  opponents 
of  the  new  Dual  Alliance  had  been  only  Russia  and 
France.  It  is,  therefore,  treachery  to  prevent  the 
bully  from  having  his  own  way,  by  taking  a  hand  in 
the  game  against  him.  Herr  von  Bethmann-Holl- 
weg  might  have  reflected  that,  after  all,  the  inten- 
tion of  the  neutrality  treaties  of  1839  and  1870  was 
to  provide  a  povv^er  to  punish  a  nation  which  in- 
fringed them;  and  that  Great  Britain  had  thrice  given 
notice  of  her  resolve  to  enforce  them. 

But  who  was  this  statesman  that  he  should  talk  of 
morality,  coming  hot-foot  from  the  Tribune  in  the 
Reichstag  where  he  had  set  forth  his  justification  of 
the  violation  of  Belgium's  neutrality,  admitting  the 
wrong  of  it,  but  pleading  necessity,  as  Germany  had 
to  hack  her  way  through.  That  atrocious  utterance 
has  been  most  justly  condemned  by  the  world.  It 
deprives  its  author  of  all  claim  to  be  a  censor  of 
other  people's  morals,  but  it  has  one  merit:  It  is  bare- 
faced, and  so  far  is  preferable  to  many  another 
apologia  for  Germany's  action.  To  be  sure  the 
Chancellor  does  mar  the  perfect  cynicism  of  his  state- 


THE  WOLF  AND  THE  LAMB  261 

ment  by  suggesting  one  excuse ;  and  It  is  a  falsehood. 
*'  France,"  he  said,  "  stood  ready  for  invasion." 
That  is  not  true.  When  war  was  declared  the  whole 
of  the  French  forces,  in  accordance  with  the  plan  of 
concentration,  was  disposed  between  Belgium  and 
Belfort;  thus  confronting  Germany,  and  nothing  but 
Germany.  The  invasion  of  Belgium  by  Germ.any  dis- 
located the  French  plans,  and  enforced  a  redistribu- 
tion of  her  armies. ^^  So  unready  was  France  to  enter 
Belgium  that  she  was  unable  to  aid  the  Belgians;  she 
was  unable  even  to  save  her  own  fortresses,  or  to 
withstand  the  onslaught  for  weeks  after  Germany  had 
invested  Liege. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  turn  to  an  incident  at  Brussels 
on  August  3rd,  the  day  before  the  Chancellor  spoke 
in  the  Reichstag.  At  1.30  A.M.  Herr  von  Below 
awakened  Baron  van  der  Elst,  the  Belgian  Secretary- 
General  for  Foreign  Affairs,  in  order  to  tell  him  that 
a  patrol  of  French  cavalry  and  some  French  dirigibles 
had  crossed  the  frontier.  "  Where  did  this  hap- 
pen?" asked  the  Baron.  "In  Germany,"  was  the 
reply.  The  Belgian  official  naturally  pointed  out 
that  in  that  case  it  was  no  concern  of  Belgium,  and 
that  he  could  not  understand  the  object  of  the  com- 
munication. Herr  von  Belo.w's  explanation  was 
that  the  acts  were  of  such  a  nature  as  to  suggest  that 
other  acts  contrary  to  international  law  would  be 
perpetrated  by  France. 

These  unproved  and  apocryphal  acts,  in  any  case 
unconnected  with  Belgium  —  it  was  not  even  alleged 
that  the  dirigibles  had  flown  over  Belgian  territory 
—  were  the  sole  basis  of  Herr  von  Bethmann-Holl- 
weg's  charge  that  France  intended  to  invade  Bel- 
gium.    In  any  case,  Germany's  obvious  duty  was  to 

12  French  official  reply  to  General  Bernhardi,  March  24th,  1915. 


262        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

wait  until  French  soldiers  had  crossed  the  Belgian 
frontier,  and  then  to  step  forward  as  the  champion 
of  Belgium,  calling  on  Great  Britain  to  fulfil  her 
obligations  under  the  treaties  of  neutrality.  Had 
that  happened,  it  is  as  certain  as  anything  can  be  that 
France,  by  her  violation  of  neutrality,  would  have 
forfeited  the  support  of  Great  Britain,  and  Germany 
would  have  arrayed  the  moral  sense  of  the  world 
upon  her  side.  Germany  did  not  take  this  obvious 
course,  because  she  knew  that  France  would  not  play 
into  her  hands;  and  that  the  military  policy  of  France 
was  framed  upon  the  inviolability  of  Belgian  neu- 
trality, with  the  security  it  gave  her  on  her  north- 
eastern frontier.  The  German  Chancellor  con- 
cealed this  knowledge  under  the  words,  "  France 
could  wait,  but  we  could  not  wait,"  though  later 
these  phrases  were  dishonestly  deleted  from  the  re- 
port of  his  speech,  because  of  their  fatal  significance. 
"  France  could  wait."  Of  course.  She  had  to  wait 
for  the  slow  mobilization  of  her  army;  but  if  delay 
was  essential  to  her,  what  became  of  the  argument 
that  she  was  about  to  hurl  troops  into  Belgium? 

The  German  Chancellor  accused  Great  Britain  of 
"  treachery  "  in  maintaining  the  neutrality  of  Bel- 
gium; but  let  us  consider  for  a  moment  Germany's 
"  loyalty  "  in  violating  it?  We  need  not  repeat  the 
story  of  the  Treaty  of  1839  or  of  the  temporary 
Treaty  of  1870;  we  can  take  up  the  tale  in  191 1, 
while  Herr  von  Bethmann-Hollweg  was  Chancellor. 
In  that  year  the  question  of  Belgian  neutrality  was  re- 
opened. Discussing  the  fortification  of  Flushing, 
some  Dutch  newspapers  had  said  that  Germany 
would  violate  the  neutrality  of  Belgium  in  case  of  a 
war  with  France.  Thereupon  the  Belgian  Foreign 
Ofl'ice  suggested  that  if  the  German  Chancellor  would 
take  the  opportunity  of  a  debate  on  foreign  policy  to 


GERMANY'S  REPEATED  PLEDGES        263 

make  a  reassuring  statement  In  the  Reichstag,  it 
would  calm  public  opinion  in  Belgium  and  tend  to 
maintain  friendly  confidence.  Herr  von  Bethmann- 
Hollweg  demurred  to  making  a  public  statement, 
since  it  might  induce  France,  secured  on  her  north- 
eastern frontier,  to  concentrate  her  military  efforts 
on  the  east;  but  he  declared  that,  "  Germany  had  no 
intention  of  violating  Belgian  neutrality." 

Again,  on  April  29th,  19 13,  there  was  a  discussion 
on  foreign  affairs  in  the  German  Reichstag,  in  which 
one  of  the  Socialist  members  raised  the  question,  ob- 
serving that,  in  view  of  the  growing  danger  of  a 
Franco-German  war,  Belgium  was  afraid  that  Ger- 
many might  infringe  her  neutrality.  The  German 
Foreign  Minister  replied  that  the  neutrality  of  Bel- 
gium was  established  by  international  conventions, 
and  that  Germany  "  had  decided  to  respect  those  con- 
ventions." This,  however,  did  not  satisfy  the  So- 
cialist thirst  for  information,  so  Herr  vonHeerlngen, 
the  Minister  for  War,  intervened,  and  said: 

"  Belgium  has  no  part  in  justifying  the  German  scheme 
of  military  reorganization;  that  justification  is  found  in  the 
eastern  situation.  Germany  will  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  Belgian  neutrality  is  guaranteed  by  international  con- 
ventions." ^' 

We  now  come  to  July,  19 14.  On  the  31st,  when 
things  were  drifting  towards  war,  the  Belgian  Gov- 
ernment reminded  Herr  von  Below,  the  German 
Minister  at  Brussels,  of  the  conversations  of  191 1. 
He  replied  that  he  was  well  acquainted  with  them, 
"  And  that  he  was  certain  that  the  sentiments  then  ex- 
pressed had  not  changed." 

Three  days  later,  on  August  2nd,  when  war  had 
already   begun,   the   Belgian   Foreign   Minister   en- 

12  Belgian  Grey  Book,  Enclosure  in  No.  12. 


264        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

countered  Herr  von  Below  and  told  him  of  the  prom- 
ise given  by  France  to  respect  Belgian  neutrality. 
The  German  Minister  thanked  him  for  the  informa- 
tion, adding  that  up  to  the  present  he  had  had  no 
instructions  to  make  an  official  communication  to  the 
Belgian  Government;  but  that  "We  knew  his  per- 
sonal opinion  respecting  the  security  with  which  we 
had  the  right  to  regard  our  Eastern  neighbours."  ^^ 
At  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  this  very  day  that 
same  Minister  presented  Germany's  ultimatum  to  the 
Belgian  Government! 

Five  days  earlier  —  on  July  29th  —  the  German 
Chancellor  had  evaded  the  Belgian  question  when 
he  made  the  "  infamous  proposal";  three  days  ear- 
lier Herr  von  Jagow  had  refused  to  give  an  answer 
on  the  subject  without  consulting  the  Emperor  and  the 
Chancellor,  though  he  was  doubtful  if  any  answer  at 
all  would  be  given,  as  it  might  disclose  Germany's 
military  plans. ^^ 

Quite  so.  In  order  that  Germany  might  safely 
weave  her  military  schemes,  which  her  Minister  of 
War  had  declared  took  no  account  of  Belgium,  the 
Chancellor  not  only  kept  silence,  but  allowed,  if  he 
did  not  actually  instruct,  his  representative  at  Brus- 
sels deliberately  to  deceive  his  intended  victim  by 
false  assurances.  He  did  the  same  thing  in  Luxem- 
burg. There  the  German  Minister,  on  July  31st, 
when  asked  by  M.  Eyschen  for  an  undertaking  that 
Germany  would  respect  the  neutrality  of  Luxemburg, 
replied,  "  That  goes  without  saying,  but  the  French 
Government  must  give  the  same  engagement."^  ^"^ 
This  the  French  Government  did;  but  Germany  in- 

1*  Belgian  Grey  Book,  No.  19. 
1^  British  White  Paper,  No.  122. 
18  French  Yellow  Book,  No.  ui. 


MAKING  BLACK  WHITE  265 

vaded  Luxemburg  only  a  few  hours  after  the  Min- 
ister's soothing  assurances.  After  that,  the  fore- 
sworn German  Chancellor  has  the  hardihood  to  talk 
of  "treachery"  and  "stabs  in  the  back."  A  bur- 
glar, extensive  as  his  experience  may  be,  is  well  ad- 
vised if  he  be  silent  on  the  subject  of  jemmies  and 
skeleton  keys. 

This  reflection  seems  to  have  suggested  itself  to 
some  friends  of  Germany  since  the  war  began.  Per- 
ceiving that  the  Chancellor's  sturdy  repudiation  of 
the  sanctity  of  treaties  has  failed  to  commend  itself 
to  plain  men,  who  hold  that  a  promise  is  a  promise 
and  a  contract  a  contract,  these  casuists  have  been  at 
pains  to  prove  that  there  was  really  no  contract  at  all ; 
and  that  the  promise  was,  therefore,  no  longer  bind- 
ing. There  is  a  fashion  in  these  things.  There  will 
always  be  found  ingenious  writers  to  prove  that  Nero 
was  the  innocent  victim  of  an  artistic  temperament; 
that  Richard  Crookback  was  really  a  man  of  com- 
manding presence  and  fine  honour,  who  smothered 
his  nephew  from  high  patriotic  motives.  "  Let  us 
only  conquer,"  said  Frederick  the  Great,  when  he 
violated  the  neutrality  of  Saxony  in  1756;  "  the  poli- 
ticians will  then  find  plenty  of  justification  for  us." 

Since  August  last  the  politicians  have  been  busy 
tr}'ing  to  save  Herr  von  Bethmann-Hollweg  from 
himself,  with  indifferent  success.  Their  pleas  are 
drawn  upon  lines  familiar  to  the  criminal  courts. 
They  plead  not  guilty  first,  because  the  Treaty  of 
1839  had  lost  its  binding  force;  secondly,  because, 
though  still  effective,  it  had  been  violated  by  France 
and  England;  thirdly,  because  though  it  may  not  have 
been  violated  by  any  one,  Belgium  refused  to  violate 
it  in  Germany's  favour!  It  would  be  sufficient  to 
point  out  that  these  arguments  are  mutually  destruc- 


266        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

tlve;  but  it  Is  necessary  to  deal  with  them,  especially 
with  the  second,  If  only  to  show  by  their  flimslness 
how  desperate  Is  the  case  for  Germany. 

The  first  argument  —  that  the  Treaty  of  1839  was 
no  longer  operative  —  may  be  dismissed  in  a  very 
few  words.  It  has  been  said  that  Prussia  was  ab- 
solved from  her  pledge  when  she  entered  the  North 
German  Union,  as  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  Great 
Britain  was  compelled  to  have  France  and  Germany 
sign  a  second  Treaty  of  Neutrality  in  1870;  and  that 
the  engagements  of  the  North  German  Union  did  not 
bind  the  German  Empire  which,  as  a  fact,  has  never 
guaranteed  Belgian  neutrality.  There  is  no  founda- 
tion for  such  Ignorant  statements.  The  temporary 
Treaty  of  1870  explicitly  stated  that,  on  Its  expira- 
tion, "  The  Independence  and  neutrality  of  Belgium 
will,  so  far  as  the  high  contracting  parties  are  re- 
spectively concerned,  continue  to  rest  as  heretofore 
on  the  first  article  of  the  Quintuple  Treaty  of  the 
nineteenth  of  April,  1839." 

In  these  words  the  North  German  Union  took 
over  Prussia's  obligations  towards  Belgium  and,  as 
has  been  shown,  the  German  Empire  reaffirmed  those 
obligations  In  191 1,  also  In  19 13,  and  again  last 
year.  Herr  von  Bethmann-Hollweg  himself  admit- 
ted It  on  August  4th,  19 14,  when  he  said  that  the 
action  of  Germany  was  "  contrary  to  the  dictates  of 
international  law." 

It  Is  perhaps  significant  that  these  attempts  to  pal- 
liate the  Invasion  of  Belgium  are  made  by  non-Ger- 
manic apologists.  The  German,  less  harassed  by  in- 
ternational rules,  disdains  such  hair-splitting.  He  Is 
content,  like  Herr  Dernburg,  to  say  that  "  treaties 
must  not  be  overrated,"  that  they  must  be  disre- 
garded in  national  emergency;  or,  like  the  Chancellor, 


DID  BELGIUM  INFRINGE  NEUTRALITY    267 

to  regard  them  as  paper  spills  to  be  used  as  pipe- 
lights  by  Necessity. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  take  the  place  of  the  German 
Chancellor,  imbued  with  his  aspirations  and  con- 
fronted with  a  Treaty  which  made  them  unattainable, 
and  ask  ourselv-es  what  our  duty  would  be  in  order  to 
reconcile  the  advantage  of  our  country  with  its  treaty 
obligations.  Obviously  the  honourable  course  was 
denunciation  of  the  Treat}^  of  1839.  Nations  have 
often  denounced  treaties  when  they  became  incon- 
venient,—  Great  Britain  has  denounced  treaties  with 
Germany  which  conflicted  with  her  duty  towards  her 
over-sea  Dominions  —  and  no  taint  of  dishonour  has 
remained.  The  Treaty  of  1839  contained  a  pro- 
vision for  such  an  event.  It  was,  therefore,  open  to 
Germany  to  announce  that  she  withdrew  from  her 
position  as  a  guarantor  of  Belgian  neutrality.  Of 
course  she  could  not  honourably  have  done  so  last 
July,  because  it  is  not  permissible  to  pretend  adher- 
ence to  an  agreement  until  the  only  moment  when  it 
becomes  actively  operative.  Germany,  however, 
never  denounced  the  Treaty,  not  even  at  the  eleventh 
hour;  up  to  the  last  she  professed  her  loyalty  to  it. 
By  so  much  is  her  guilt  the  greater  and  the  possibility 
of  palliation  the  less. 

The  champions  of  Germany  construct  a  second  line 
of  defence  —  that  Germany  was  justified  in  invading 
Belgium,  because  Belgium  had  already  infringed  her 
neutrality.  Now,  Belgium  could  only  have  infringed 
her  duties  as  a  neutral  before  Germany  crossed  her 
frontier,  because  when  that  was  done  there  was  no 
neutrality  to  infringe.  Belgium  was  bound  by  her 
obligations  to  her  guarantors  not  to  enter  into  any 
agreement  which  would  be  an  infraction  of  her  neu- 
trality; and  there  is  no  evidence  whatever  to  show 


268        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

that  she  did  so.     Therefore,  suggestions  that  there 
were   "  French  officers  in  Liege  and  other  Belgian 
fortresses  after  war  had  begun  "  falls  to  the  ground. 
But  in  view  of  Herr  von  Bethmann-Hollweg's  fa- 
mous speech  on  August  4th,  the  question  need  not  be 
argued.     The  Chancellor  wanted  then  to  make  out 
the  best  case  he  could,  and  it  would  have  been  worth 
anything  to  him  to  have  proved  Belgium's  infidelity. 
Neither  then,  nor  in  his  communications  with  Bel- 
gium before  the  war,  did  he  even  suggest  any  breach 
of  International  right.     His  only  attempt  to  justify 
the  "  wrong  "  was  to  charge  France  —  not  Belgium 
—  with  the  intention  of  breaking  neutrality.     He 
had  no   complaint  to  make   of  Belgium's   conduct. 
Belgium  had,  indeed,  been  scrupulous  to  avoid  any 
cause  of  offence,  however  slight.     On  August  ist,  the 
Belgian  people  were  naturally  nervous  and  excited. 
They  saw  themselves  faced  with  grave  danger.     One 
newspaper,  Le  Petit  Bleu,  commented  on  the  inter- 
national situation  in  a  tone  friendly  towards  France, 
and  immediately  —  on  August  2nd — the  Govern- 
ment seized  every  copy,  on  the  ground  that  the  tone 
of  the  paper  was  unneutral.     On  the  previous  day 
the  Minister  of  the  Interior  ordered  all  local  authori- 
ties to  prohibit  meetings  intended  to  show  sympathy 
or  antipathy  for  any  Power;  and  to  stop  all  military 
cinematograph    exhibitions.     Thus,    critically    inter- 
ested though  they  were,  the  Belgians  were  the  only 
people  in  the  world  who  were  not  allowed  to  express 
publicly  any  opinion  on  the  war. 

While  the  apologists  of  Germany  were  thus 
floundering  between  a  cynical  assertion  of  necessity 
which  mankind  rejected,  and  charges  of  infidelity 
against  Belgium  which  they  could  not  prove,  happy 
chance  provided  them  with  an  argument,  of  which 
they  have  made   the   most.     Herr  von   Bethmann- 


THE  GREAT  MARE'S  NEST  269 

Hollweg  displayed  It  sensationally  in  his  famous  in- 
terview with  the  representative  of  the  Associated 
Press  last  January.^^ 

"  England  ought  really  to  cease  harping  on  the  theme  of 
Belgian  neutrality.  Documents  on  the  Anglo-Belgian  mili- 
tary agreement  which  we  have  found  in  the  meantime  show 
plainly  enough  how  England  regarded  this  neutrality.  As 
you  know,  we  found  in  the  archives  of  the  Belgian  Foreign 
Office  papers  which  showed  that  in  191 1  England  was  de- 
termined to  throw  troops  into  Belgium  without  her  assent  if 
war  had  then  broken  out  —  in  other  words,  to  do  exactly  the 
same  thing  for  which,  with  all  the  pathos  of  virtuous  indigna- 
tion, she  now  reproaches  Germany." 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  one  in  the  Chancellor's 
statement  is  that  it  entirely  refutes  his  own  conten- 
tion. In  one  sentence  he  tells  us  that  England  had 
determined  in  the  event  of  war,  to  throw  troops  into 
Belgium  "without  her  assent";  in  another  he  says 
that  England  had  made  an  "  agreement  "  with  Bel- 
gium to  do  so.  How  can  these  two  statements  be 
reconciled?  If  England  was  resolved  to  invade  Bel- 
gium without  Belgium's  consent,  would  she  have 
worked  out  a  military  plan  of  invasion  with  the  Bel- 
gian War  Office?  If  the  Belgian  War  Office  were 
parties  to  such  a  scheme,  how  can  it  be  said  that 
Belgium  was  to  be  invaded  willy-nilly?  If  then, 
there  was  an  agreement  with  Belgium,  the  Chan- 
cellor's parallel  between  England  and  Germany  is 
nonsense. 

The  Chancellor  cannot  justly  be  blamed  for  in- 
capacity to  see  how  the  above  assertions  contradict 
one  another;  that  is  his  misfortune.  But  he  must  be 
condemned  for  the  suppression  of  an  all-Important 
fact.     On  the  margin  of  the  document  discovered  in 

^^  See  London  newspapers,  January  26th,   1915. 


270        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Brussels  appears  this  note,  endorsed  on  it  by  the  Bel- 
gian War  Office : 

"  The  entry  of  the  English  into  Belgium  would  only  take 
place  after  the  violation  of  our  neutrality  by  Germany."  ^^ 

The  importance  of  this  marginal  note  is  obvious. 
It  shows  that  Great  Britain  had  no  intention  of 
violating  Belgian  neutrality;  and  that  any  military  in- 
tervention was  contingent  on  Belgium  having  first 
been  invaded  by  Germany ;  which  is  precisely  the  con- 
tingency provided  for  in  the  Treaty  of  1839,  to  which 
Germany  was  a  party.  It  was  not  by  accident  or 
design  that  the  Chancellor  omitted  to  mention  this 
note.  In  the  reproduction  of  the  document  in  the 
German  Press,  the  marginal  note  was  not  printed  at 
all.  Herr  von  Bethmann-HoUweg  boldly  gives  a 
gloss  of  his  own  making,  when  he  says,  "  If  war  had 
then  broken  out."  Poor  argument  this.  It  was 
not  war  which  was  to  justify  British  intervention  in 
Belgium,  but  the  violation  of  her  neutrality. 

This  marginal  note  does  more  than  regulate  British 
intervention;  it  explains  in  the  clearest  way  the  real 
nature  of  the  document.  It  was  not  an  agreement 
between  the  two  countries,  it  was  not  even  a  record  of 
diplomatic  conversations;  it  was  a  record  of  purely 
technical  discussions  between  General  Ducarne  of  the 
Belgian  War  Office  and  Colonel  Barnardiston,  then 
Military  Attache  to  the  British  Legation  in  Brussels. 
So  informal  was  it  that  no  copy  of  it  is  filed  at  the 
British  Foreign  or  War  Offices. 

These  military  discussions  took  place  in  1906  and 
191 1.  At  both  of  these  periods  there  was  con- 
siderable friction  between  France  and  Germany  re- 
specting Morocco.     As  in   1870,  and  in   1914,  the 

IS  Sir  Edward  Grey's  statement  in  reply  to  the  German  Chancel- 
lor, January  27th,    1915. 


ANGLO-BELGIAN  CONVERSATIONS       271 

possibility  of  trouble  between  these  nations  recalled 
to  Great  Britain  her  obligations  under  the  treaty  of 
neutrality.  In  1870  it  drove  Mr.  Gladstone  to  con- 
sider the  problem  of  landing  20,000  men  on  Belgian 
soil.  In  1906  it  impelled  General  Ducarne,  Chief  of 
the  Belgian  General  Staff,  to  study,  as  was  his  duty, 
measures  to  enable  Belgium,  either  alone  or  in  con- 
junction with  her  guarantors,  to  resist  violation  of 
her  neutrality.  At  the  same  time  it  induced  Colonel 
Barnardiston  to  ask  General  Ducarne  this  natural 
question :     "  Is  Belgium  prepared  to  resist  a  German 


invasion 


7  " 


The  answer  was  remarkable  and  significant.  Bel- 
gium was  sensitive,  jealous  of  her  honour,  proud  in 
her  resolve  to  defend  herself,  punctilious  in  her  de- 
sire to  avoid  any  semblance  of  collusion.  And,  in 
this  sense,  General  Ducarne  replied  to  Colonel 
Barnardiston  that  Belgium  was  prepared  to  defend 
herself,  at  Liege  against  Germany,  at  Namur  against 
France,  at  Antwerp  against  England !  In  speaking 
thus  the  Belgian  Chief  of  the  Staff  was  only  putting 
into  military  terms  the  warnings  which  his  Govern- 
ment had  addressed  to  the  Ambassadors  of  all  the 
Powers ;  in  which  it  declared  its  formal  intention  of 
compelling  respect  for  Belgian  neutrality  by  every 
means  at  its  disposal.  The  same  resolution  was 
shown  in  the  remark  made  by  the  Belgian  Chief  of 
Staff  to  Colonel  Barnardiston, — "  You  could  only 
land  in  our  country  with  our  consent."  ^^ 

That  having  been  made  clear.  General  Ducarne  ex- 
plained the  resources  on  which  Belgium  relied,  if 
she  was  compelled  to  defend  herself  single-handed. 
And  then,  as  was  his  right,  and,  indeed,  his  duty,  he 
asked  the  British  Military  Attache  what  steps  Eng- 

1"  Sir   Edward    Grey.     Reply   to    Herr    von   Bethmann-HoUweg, 
January  27th,  1915. 


272        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

land  was  prepared  to  take  to  fulfil  her  treaty  obliga- 
tions should  the  neutrality  of  Belgium  be  infringed. 
Thereupon  ensued  those  strategical  discussions,  after- 
wards embodied  by  General  Ducarne  in  the  Memo- 
randum "  discovered  "  in  Brussels  and  now  paraded 
as  a  corrupt  agreement  between  Great  Britain  and 
Belgium. 

What  was  done  by  General  Ducarne  and  by  Col- 
onel Barnardiston  is  the  course  professionally  fol- 
lowed by  the  General  Staffs  of  every  nation  in  the 
world.  Plans  of  campaigns  against  all  possible  an- 
tagonists and  under  all  possible  conditions  are  worked 
out  years  ahead,  pigeonholed,  and  revised  from  time 
to  time  to  meet  altered  circumstances.  Belgium,  as 
has  been  shown,  had  made  plans  to  resist  invasion 
from  Germany,  France  or  England.  Germany  had 
made  elaborate  plans  to  invade  France  through  Bel- 
gium, building  strategical  railways  through  sparsely 
populated  country,  and  making  military  dispositions 
with  that  object  in  view.  All  that  the  Anglo-Belgian 
conversations  meant  was  that  each  of  the  two  nations 
could  make  their  plans  in  full  knowledge  of  what  the 
other  could  do  in  an  event  especially  provided  for  by 
Treaty.  The  Conversations  involved  no  engage- 
ment between  the  two  countries,  and  did  not  in  any 
degree  bind  Great  Britain  to  take  action.  Her  only 
obligation  was  contained  in  the  Quintuple  Treaty. 

A  military  arrangement,  to  take  effect  on  the  in- 
vasion of  Belgium,  was  no  infringement  of  obliga- 
tions; on  the  contrary  it  was  a  course  which  Belgium 
and  her  guarantors  were  bound  to  take.  Why  did 
not  Germany  confer  with  Belgium  as  to  the  possibility 
of  her  neutrality  being  violated?  She  was  bound  to 
contemplate  the  possibility  of  that  invasion.  It  was 
her  duty,  therefore,  to  do  what  England  did.  By  her 
obhgations  to  the  guarantors  Belgium  was  bound  to 


GERMAN  DESIGNS  ON  BELGIUM        273 

resist  invasion,  and  they  were  bound  to  help  her  in 
such  an  event.  Belgium  was  entitled  to  ask  her 
guarantors  what  they  were  prepared  to  do;  and  they 
in  turn  were  entitled  to  demand  that  she  should  be 
prepared  to  resist  Invasion.  It  was  colossal  effron- 
tery of  Germany  to  protest  against  military  plans  be- 
ing formed  for  the  maintenance  of  Belgium's  neu- 
trality, while  she  had  been  planning  for  years  to  in- 
vade it,  either  by  force  of  arms  or  with  Belgium's 
permission.  Her  strategical  railways  and  her  com- 
mercial exploitation  of  Belgium  were  means  to  that 
end. 

What  was  the  position?  The  neutrality  of  Bel- 
gium lay  in  no  danger  of  violation  save  In  the  case  of 
a  Franco-German  War.  In  such  event  the  Initiative 
would  certainly  He  with  Germany;  Indeed  Germany 
avowedly  relied  on  the  possession  of  the  initiative  for 
success,  and  she  Intended  to  use  it.  When  Herr  von 
Jagow  and  his  Chancellor  said  last  year,  *'  Russia  and 
France  can  afford  to  wait,  but  Germany  cannot,"  they 
were  only  repeating  what  had  been  enforced  in  thou- 
sands of  German  military  books.  Therefore,  Ger- 
many was  sure  to  be  the  first  to  enter  Belgium,  if  It 
was  entered  at  all.  As  to  the"  latter  there  was  little 
doubt.  So  far  back  as  1875  the  Invasion  of  Belgium 
was  contemplated  by  Germany.  Writing  to  Sir  Rob- 
ert Morler,  British  Envoy  at  Munich,  on  March 
27th,  1875,  when  a  Franco-German  war  seemed  im- 
minent. Professor  Geffcken  said,  "  There  Is  to  be  a 
great  coHp,  and  Belgium  Is  the  object.  .  .  .  He  (Bis- 
marck) is  resolved  to  annihilate  Belgium." 

But  more  than  this:  the  Invasion  of  Belgium  was 
no  part  of  the  strategy  of  France.  Her  numerical 
inferiority,  an  inferiority  which  her  stationary  popu- 
lation would  accentuate  every  year,  imposed  on  her 
the  necessity  of  fighting  on  the  narrowest  possible 


274        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

front  as  essential  to  her  defensive  policy.  Thus  she 
conc'entrated  her  efforts  In  making  her  eastern 
frontier  Impregnable,  to  the  neglect  of  the  Belgian 
marches.  Had  she  entertained  the  design  of  attack- 
ing Germany  through  Belgium  she  would  not  have 
left  the  Trouee  de  Chlmay;  she  would  not  have  re- 
lied on  fortresses  like  Maubeuge.  Also,  Belgium 
had  this  further  guarantee  for  the  loyalty  of  France 
—  that,  in  1870,  when  a  violation  of  Belgian  soil 
would  have  averted  the  disaster  of  Sedan,  and  might 
have  enabled  France  to  rally  her  armies  for  a  fresh 
effort,  she  submitted  to  a  humiliating  catastrophe. 

Germany,  on  the  other  hand,  superior  In  numbers, 
relied  on  the  aggressive,  and  therefore  aimed  at  fight- 
ing on  a  broad  front.  As  Von  Jagow  said  to  Sir  Ed- 
ward Goschen,  It  was  a  matter  of  life  and  death  to  get 
into  France  by  the  easiest  and  quickest  way.  To 
have  tried  to  force  the  French  frontier  further  south 
would  have  meant  delay  and  heavy  losses. 

At  last  Belgium,  suspicious,  made  her  own  plans  to 
meet  the  most  probable  danger;  and,  England,  sus- 
picious also,  made  Inquiries  which  she  was  bound  to 
make  If  she  was  to  be  an  effective  guarantor;  but  there 
was  no  concerted  action  with  Belgium,  as  the  Belgian 
Minister  In  London  has  publicly  declared.  Prepara- 
tion to  resist  violation  of  neutrality  Is  a  natural  obli- 
gation on  all  concerned,  and  especially  on  the  part  of 
any  guarantor  who  suspects  the  fidelity  of  any  co- 
guarantor. 

Lastly,  as  If  conscious  that  all  these  Ingenious 
apologies  for  Germany  must  fall,  her  champions  fall 
back  on  a  plea  that  might  well  bring  a  blush  to  the 
cheek  of  an  honest  man.  "  After  all,"  they  say, 
"  Belgium  has  only  herself  to  thank  for  what  has  be- 
fallen her.  If  she  had  not  listened  to  England,  If  she 
had  allowed  Germany  to  march  through  Belgium,  she 


THE  TEMPTATION  OF  BELGIUM       275 

would  have  suffered  nothing;  Indeed  she  would  have 
been  money  in  pocket.  She  could  have  been  mer- 
chant, broker,  and  contractor  for  Germany." 

What  a  light  is  thrown  on  German  political  mor- 
ality by  such  an  argument  gravely  advanced  by  philos- 
ophers, economists,  scientists,  historians,  statesmen, 
merchants,  even  theologians  !  It  is  as  though  a  man, 
on  trial  for  killing  a  policeman,  were  to  say,  "  It  was 
the  silly  fool's  own  fault.  If  he  had  only  let  me  rob 
the  shop,  he  would  have  been  all  right;  he  might  even 
have  had  a  bit  of  the  swag." 

That  is  almost  literally  the  position.  Belgium  was 
bound  to  be  true  to  her  own  neutrality.  It  had  been 
declared  not  in  her  own  interest  alone,  but  in  the 
interests  of  Europe.  For  the  sake  of  that  she  had 
enjoyed  three-quarters  of  a  century  of  peace,  to  which 
her  land  had  long  been  a  stranger.  In  return  for 
that  benefit,  her  duty  demanded  that  she  should  give 
to  no  State  an  advantage  which  might  injure  others. 
Had  she  regarded  her  obligation  as  a  scrap  of  paper, 
she  might  have  saved  herself  much  sacrifice;  but  she 
would  have  betrayed  her  trust,  and  her  name  would 
have  been  a  byword  among  the  nations. 

The  temptation  to  yield  to  Germany's  demand  for 
a  free  passage  was  not  slight.  The  Flemings  were 
of  Teutonic  blood;  the  Walloons  were  offended  by 
the  policy  of  France  towards  the  Church  to  which 
they  were  passionately  attached;  throughout  the 
country  was  a  strong  Socialist  Party  with  a  leaning  to- 
wards anti-militarism.  Great  Britain,  by  her  criti- 
cism of  Congo  administration,  had  lost  some  of  her 
former  popularity.  The  people  had  become  ad- 
dicted to  the  arts  of  peace :  they  knew  by  old  tradition 
how  terrible  war  could  be,  though  they  were  still  un- 
conscious of  the  depths  of  infamy  which  it  could 
reach.     By   submission   they   could  purchase   tran- 


276        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

quillity  and  they  could  make  large  gains.  They  were 
promised  that  their  territorial  integrity  and  inde- 
pendence should  be  respected,  and  that  they  should 
get  generous  compensation  for  any  injury  they  might 
sustain. 

And  they  refused.  They  refused  it  before  war  be- 
gan, and  they  refused  it  twice  after  it  began.  They 
did  not  balance;  they  did  their  duty;  they  kept  the 
faith.  The  words  of  the  Belgian  reply  will  ring  in 
the  aisles  of  Time  until  there  is  no  more  Time  at 
all: 

"  Belgium  has  always  remained  faithful  to  her  interna- 
tional obligations;  she  has  fulfilled  her  duties  in  a  spirit  of 
loyal  impartiality;  she  has  left  nothing  undone  in  order  to 
maintain  or  to  secure  respect  of  her  neutrality.  The  attack 
upon  her  independence  with  which  the  German  Government 
threatens  Belgium  would  constitute  a  flagrant  violation  of 
International  Law.  No  strategic  interest  justifies  the  vio- 
lation of  that  Law.  If  the  Belgian  Government  accepted  the 
proposals  which  are  put  forward  in  the  German  Note,  it 
would  sacrifice  the  honour  of  the  nation,  and  would,  at  the 
same  time,  betray  its  trust  towards  Europe." 

We  know  the  sequel,  its  cruelty,  its  horror,  its  bar- 
barism. The  world  shudders,  and  through  long 
years  it  will  shrink,  from  the  thought  of  what  this  lit- 
tle country  has  suffered  from  being  true  to  her  trust. 
She  has,  however,  done  more  than  prove  her  own 
loyalty  to  her  plighted  word  and  her  treaty  obliga- 
tions; she  has  aroused  the  conscience  of  mankind,  she 
has  kindled  a  torch  that  will  not  be  extinguished. 

It  seems  to  be  a  law  of  life,  mysterious  and  sombre, 
that  man  can  only  win  forward  through  the  suffering 
of  the  innocent.  All  the  Reformations,  political,  so- 
cial, religious,  have  been  built  on  the  bones  and 
cemented  by  the  blood  of  martyrs.  Great  causes 
have  been  advanced  as  much  by  misery  as  by  valour, 


MARTYRDOM  277 

by  the  patent  consequences  of  Wrong  as  much  as  by 
the  Proclamation  of  Right.  When  Belgium  gave 
her  answer  to  Germany  she  set  a  great  example  and 
gave  a  splendid  message  to  mankind.  It  may  be  that, 
to  be  effective,  it  had  to  be  sealed  and  sanctified  by 
her  sorrow. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE   SEDUCTION   OF   TURKEY 

War  was  declared  between  the  Allies  and  Turkey  on 
October  30th,  19 14.  It  was  the  astonishing  end  of 
an  astonishing  situation,  which  had  its  ludicrous  as 
well  as  its  tragic  side.  Here  was  a  country,  existing 
and  likely  to  exist  for  long,  on  sufferance  as  a  Euro- 
pean Power,  plunging  into  war,  when  her  first  inter- 
est was  peace;  and  choosing  for  the  mad  adventure, 
not  the  moment  when  her  friends  were  at  the  flood 
of  fortune,  but  when  the  tide  had  begun  to  ebb,  when 
victory  was  moving  farther  and  farther  away  from 
their  standards.  From  the  standpoint  of  German 
need  the  moment  was  not  ill-chosen  for  Germany,  but 
on  the  Turkish  side  it  was  an  act  of  doom. 

It  is  here  that  the  farcical  side  of  the  incident  shows 
so  garishly.  Turkey  went  to  war  against  her  will. 
There  have  been  cases  where  a  Monarch  has  dragged 
an  unwilling  people  into  war,  where  a  Cabinet  have 
forced  a  war,  or  where,  as  in  the  days  of  Walpole, 
the  people  have  compelled  their  ruler  to  make  war. 
In  Turkey,  however,  the  Sultan,  the  Cabinet,  and  the 
people  wanted  peace,  and  yet  they  have  stripped 
themselves  naked  for  the  struggle.  The  country  will 
have  to  give  the  shirt  from  its  back;  it  will  be  a  na- 
tion only  in  name;  it  will  be  In  pawn  to  a  ruthless 
usurer.  It  will  never  be  able  to  redeem  its  Integrity 
if  Germany  should  win;  and  if  she  loses  there  will  be 
no  Turkey  at  all.  She  has  sold  herself  for  thirty 
pieces  of  silver,  and  In  the  end  she  must  hang  herself. 
The  incongruity  of  the  position  Is  Increased  by  the 
fact  that  Turkey  went  to  war  at  the  bidding  of  one 

278 


NEW  FRIENDS  FOR  OLD  279 

who  was  no  Turk,  and  to  support  the  one  great 
Power  in  Europe  whose  aims  are  most  inimical  to  her 
interests. 

The  day  has  long  passed  since  the  Turks  were  the 
menace  of  Europe,  thundering  at  the  gates  of  Vienna 
and  threatening  to  emulate  the  conquering  Huns. 
For  years  Turkey  has  depended  for  her  position  in 
Europe  on  the  support  of  those  whose  ancestors  once 
trembled  at  the  coming  of  the  Turcoman  hordes. 
During  the  period  of  her  decadence  her  natural  allies 
have  been  the  Western  Powers.  They  saved  her 
more  than  once  —  in  1855  and  1878  —  from  com- 
plete destruction;  they  offered  her  advice  which,  had 
she  followed  it,  would  have  spared  her  shame,  loss 
and  suffering.  It  need  not  be  pretended  that  the 
Powers  were  disinterested  in  the  course  they  took; 
but  they  asked  of  Turkey  no  more  than  that  she 
should  exist,  and  to  behave  herself  so  that  her  ex- 
istence might  be  prolonged.  They  asked  for  no  ex- 
hausting concessions,  they  sought  no  territorial  ag- 
grandizement at  her  expense;  however  selfish  their 
motives  may  have  been,  it  was  not  Turkey  which  had 
to  suffer  for  them.  It  was  in  the  interest  of  the 
Western  Powers,  such  as  France"  and  Great  Britain, 
that  Turkey  should  be  strong,  while  it  was  to  the  in- 
terest of  Russia  that  she  should  be  weak,  or,  better 
still,  be  expelled  from  Europe.  As  for  Germany, 
she  had  no  interest  in  Turkey  save  that  which  she 
manufactured  to  serve  her  suddenly  developed  ambi- 
tions in  Persia  and  Asia  Minor.  She  was  not  a 
Mediterranean  Power.  She  had  no  Eastern  posses- 
sions; unlike  Great  Britain,  she  was  not  concerned  to 
avoid  anything  which  might  rouse  ill-will  in  Islam; 
her  interests  in  South  Eastern  Europe  were  defined 
by  Bismarck  as  not  worth  the  bones  of  a  Pomeranian 
Grenadier,  and  Germany  is  not  supposed  to  attach 


28o        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

great  value  to  the  life  of  her  soldiers,  in  units  or  In 
masses,  as  this  war  has  shown. 

Prince  Bismarck  fell,  and  with  him  the  era  of 
purely  domestic  aggrandizement.  As  shown  in  a 
previous  chapter,  Germany  made  excursions  now 
here,  now  there,  In  the  world,  prospecting  for  Em- 
pire. She  picked  up  a  few  colonies,  imposing  in  ex- 
tent, which  enabled  her  to  talk  in  a  large  way  of  Co- 
lonial Empire,  but  she  did  nothing  else,  German 
genius  does  not  Incline  towards  the  work  of  the 
pioneer.  It  can  organize,  but  it  cannot  create,  im- 
provise or  Initiate  successfully. 

But  Germany  did  not  court  Turkey  merely  for 
territorial  aggrandizement,  she  Intended  also  to  make 
use  of  her  as  an  Instrument  of  war.  Probably  the 
direct  military  value  of  Turkey  would  not  be  great, 
but  Indirectly  her  assistance  might  be  priceless.  The 
German  Military  Memorandum  of  March  19th, 
1 9 13,  is  emphatic  on  the  necessity  of  preparing  for 
war  by  breeding  discontent  among  the  Moslem  com- 
munities. It  contains  the  following  illuminating 
paragraph: 

"  It  is  absolutely  necessary  that  we  should  open  up  relations, 
by  means  of  well  chosen  organizations,  with  influential  people 
in  Egypt,  Tunis,  Algeria  and  Morocco,  in  order  to  prepare 
the  measures  which  would  be  necessary  in  the  case  of  a 
European  war." 

It  was  a  dirty  policy,  this,  of  fomenting  disloyalty 
in  the  territories  of  nations  for  whom  Germany  pro- 
fessed friendship,  and  so  It  seems  to  have  appeared, 
even  to  the  German  Government,  for  the  Memoran- 
dum adds: 

"  Whether  we  like  it  or  not,  it  will  be  necessary  to  resort 
to  preparations  of  this  kind  in  order  to  bring  a  campaign 
rapidly  to  a  conclusion." 


THE  PURCHASE  PRICE  281 

Eg)'pt  was  especially  to  be  favoured  with  these 
attentions,  since  "  more  and  more  it  serves  as  a  bond 
between  the  intellectuals  of  the  Mohammedan 
World."  1 

Turkey  is  not  mentioned  in  that  remarkable  pro- 
gramme, probably  because  she  had  already  been 
squared.  In  order  to  obtain  the  adhesion  of  the 
Mohammedan  World,  the  capture  of  the  head  of 
Islam  was  clearly  necessary.  There  followed  de- 
voted efforts  to  make  the  capture. 

Turkey  was  delighted.  Like  Danae,  she  was  en- 
veloped in  a  shower  of  gold.  No  small  number  of 
debts,  written  off  as  bad,  were  paid.  Altruistic  Ger- 
man officers  reorganized  the  army;  Krupp  supplied 
cannon.  The  Germans  not  only  showed  the  Turk 
how  to  order  his  household,  but  displayed  sympathy 
with  the  new  democratic  idea  most  astonishing  in 
view  of  their  attitude  towards  social  democracy  at 
home.  With  the  new  Young  Turk  regime  came  a 
breaklng-away  from  Turkey's  old  protectors.  Ger- 
many became  her  friend,  infinitely  more  zealous, 
more  generous,  more  useful  than  ever  they  had  been. 
To  people  so  beneficent,  so  ready  to  bear  the  heat 
and  burden  of  administration,  so  sufficiently  strong 
to  avert  all  fear  of  the  hereditary  enemy,  a  conces- 
sion for  a  railway,  which  would  enrich  and  open  up 
Asia  Minor,  was  a  small  return. 

It  is  impossible  to  think  that  Turkish  statesmen, 
who  are  not  simple,  did  not  see  that  the  account  for 
all  these  good  things  would  have  to  be  settled;  but 
it  did  not  trouble  them  sorely.  A  nation  which  bor- 
rowed money  to  build  the  Osman  and  the  Rechadie 
at  twenty  per  cent.,  would  not  look  too  curiously  at 
the  price  of  Germany's  good  services.     If  ever  the 

1  French  Yellow  Book,  No.  2. 


282        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

idea  that  Germany  might  try  to  push  commercial 
penetration  into  political  control  crossed  the  minds 
of  the  few  wise  men,  they  probably  reflected  that  at 
such  a  time  they  could  play  off  England  and  France 
against  Germany,  and  so  escape  the  penalty  of  their 
recl^lessness. 

But  one  thing  escaped  their  notice.  The  penetra- 
tion of  Asia  Minor  would  not  be  of  much  value  to 
Germany  until  she  acquired  an  overland  road  thither. 
As  she  could  not  sail  round  past  Dover  and  Gibraltar 
and  Malta,  she  must  perforce  march  via  the  Balkans 
and  Constantinople.  And  to  do  that  she  found  it 
necessary  to  connive  at  the  ruin  of  Turkey  in  Eu- 
rope. It  was  a  shady,  shabby  business,  so  shady  and 
shabby  that  probably  Turkish  statesmen,  who  are 
none  too  nice  in  their  own  diplomatic  methods,  hesi- 
tated to  attribute  it  to  Germany,  However,  there 
it  was:  Germany  not  only  allowed,  but  encouraged 
the  Balkan  States  to  strengthen  themselves  at  Tur- 
key's expense,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  tie  the 
hands  of  her  ally,  Austria,  while  the  Balkan  League 
bent  to  their  task.  That  Germany  over-reached 
herself;  that  in  trying  to  clear  her  road  to  Constan- 
tinople she  substituted  for  the  Turks  a  formidable 
Slav  Confederation  flushed  with  victory;  that,  again, 
in  trying  to  undo  this  in  her  usual  bungling  way, 
she  made  Serbia  an  irreconcilable  enemy,  is  neither 
here  nor  there.  The  point  is  that  her  diplomacy  in 
the  Balkans  had  behind  it  the  intention  of  commer- 
cial development,  to  be  followed  by  political  control 
in  Asia  Minor;  and  that  the  price  which  Turkey 
would  have  to  pay  for  German  protection  was  noth- 
ing less  than  her  national  independence. 

Turkey's  decision  to  help  Germany  and  Austria 
against  the  Alliance  is  all  the  more  remarkable  from 
the  fact  that  while  the  Allied  Powers  could  attack 


A  SUICIDAL  INFATUATION  283 

her,  the  German  Powers  could  do  little  or  nothing 
to  protect  her.  Russia  could  attack  her  in  the  Black 
Sea  and  the  Caucasus,  France  and  Britain  could 
harry  her  on  the  Mediterranean  coasts,  Greece  had 
the  tempting  islands  of  the  i^gean  to  incite  her,  and 
the  Balkan  States  might  readily  depart  from  their 
neutral  attitude  to  pick  up  what  remained  of  Euro- 
pean Turkey.  Should  all  this  happen,  neither  Aus- 
tria nor  Germany  could  move  a  battalion  or  a  battle- 
ship to  her  aid.  She  would  have  to  fight  it  out  on 
her  own,  bankrupt  of  cash  and  credit. 

Even  if  victorious,  what  was  she  to  gain?  Which 
of  her  lost  provinces  was  to  be  restored  to  her? 
Who  was  to  make  good  the  cost  of  the  war?  Was 
it  quite  certain  that  she  would  not  actually  be  a  loser 
by  the  victory  of  Germany?  Austria  in  1866  had 
bitter  cause  to  regret  her  alliance  with  Prussia  in 
1864.  History,  in  spite  of  the  proverb,  does  some- 
times repeat  itself.  Nor  was  it  so  certain  that  Ger- 
many would  win.  In  August  Turkey  might  have 
felt  confident,  but  a  good  deal  had  happened  between 
the  triumphant  march  from  Mons  and  the  30th  of 
October, 

Nor  was  Turkey  under  any  necessity  to  go  to  war 
to  save  herself  from  indignity  or  wrong.  No  attack 
was  directed  at  her.  She  had  the  guarantee  of  Eng- 
land, France  and  Russia  that  her  integrity  and  inde- 
pendence should  be  preserved;  and  these  were  the 
only  Powers  which  had  a  chance  of  violating  her  in- 
tegrity and  maintaining  that  violation.  Yet  she  went 
to  war.  Sir  Louis  Mallet  had  an  interview  with  the 
Turkish  Minister  of  the  Interior  on  September  6th, 
in  which  he  neatly  summed  up  the  position. 

"  I  told  him  that  I  had  been  informed  that  the  Turkish' 
Government  attaclicd  no  importance  to  the  written  declara- 


284        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

tion  which  I  and  my  French  and  Russian  colleagues  had  made 
them  respecting  their  integrity,  I  was  greatly  surprised  at 
this  attitude,  but  personally  somewhat  relieved,  as  to  guarantee 
the  integrity  and  independence  of  Turkey  was  like  guar- 
anteeing the  life  of  a  man  who  was  determined  to  commit  sui- 
cide." 

In  justice  It  must  be  said  that,  although  the  Turk- 
ish Government  debated  for  six  weeks  before  com- 
mitting the  rash  act,  they  committed  it  unwillingly. 
They  had  no  desire  to  end  their  country's  existence, 
they  were  not  even  Impelled  to  risk  It  for  their  own 
political  welfare,  and  yet  they  "  sold  the  pass."  One 
man  and  two  ships  were  their  undoing.  The  ships 
were  the  Goehen  and  the  Breslau,  the  man  was  Enver 
Pasha. 

Enver  Pasha  Is  one  of  those  men  who  float  to  the 
surface  In  times  of  political  disturbance,  especially 
perhaps  In  Oriental  countries.  His  ability  and  vanity 
vary  In  an  Inverse  ratio.  Though  of  mediocre  tal- 
ent, he  Is  pushing,  brave,  of  picturesque  appearance, 
and  gifted  with  the  highest  arts  of  the  window- 
dresser.  Restless,  popular,  not  over-handicapped 
with  scruples,  eager  for  power  and  the  wealth  which 
helps  to  power,  he  was  the  Ideal  agent  of  Germany's 
designs.  Germany  Is  ever  on  the  look-out  for  such 
Instruments.  When  she  finds  a  Beyers  or  an  Enver 
she  knows  precisely  how  to  play  the  music  that  will 
lure  him.  By  a  coincidence  too  happy  to  be  acci- 
dental, Enver  was  Minister  of  War  In  August  last. 

The  two  German  cruisers  found  themselves  In  the 
Mediterranean  at  the  same  moment.  Their  move- 
ments when  the  war  broke  out  were  curious  and  ap- 
parently aimless.  In  the  Teuton  way,  now  familiar 
to  the  world,  having  bombarded  leisurely  an  open 
town  or  two  In  Northern  Africa,  they  did  not  dash 
for  the  Atlantic  to  assist  the  Karlsruhe  In  preying 


MISSION  OF  THE  GOEBEN  285 

upon  commerce,  or  to  join  Admiral  Spec's  Squadron, 
as  might  have  been  expected.  Instead,  they  touched 
at  Messina,  sailed  out  in  martial  trim  with  bands 
playing,  and  promptly  made  for  the  Dardanelles. 
They  were  destined  for  a  greater  purpose  than  ev-en 
the  slaughter  of  innocent  non-combatants  so  popular 
in  the  navy  to  which  they  belonged. 

From  the  moment  they  entered  the  Dardanelles  on 
August  loth  the  fate  of  Turkey  was  settled,  because 
her  neutrality  was  compromised.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  it  was  for  that  purpose  they  took  refuge  in  Turk- 
ish waters.  It  was  hoped  that  the  Allies  would  be 
irritated  into  action;  but  when  this  hope  failed  the 
German  vessels  were  sent  out  to  commence  warlike 
operations.  That,  in  brief,  is  the  story  of  the  mis- 
sion of  the  Goeben  and  the  Breslau.  But  these  ves- 
sels did  more  even  than  that;  they  became  the  means 
of  forcing  Turkey  into  war. 

There  is  not  in  the  history  of  diplomacy  any  more 
curious  story  than  that  of  this  coercion.  It  brings  a 
whiff  of  the  Arabian  Nights  into  the  prosaic  Chan- 
celleries of  the  twentieth  century.  Perhaps  to  that 
factor  may  be  due  in  some  degree  the  success  of  Ger- 
man diplomacy,  at  Stamboul,  which  stands  in  sharp 
contrast  to  its  clumsy  failure  throughout  the  pre-war 
negotiations  in  every  other  capital.  Truth  is,  that 
German  diplomacy,  through  lack  of  political  ability 
in  its  foreign  agents,  is  unsuited  to  modern  condi- 
tions, as  Prince  BCilow  has  in  effect  admitted.  It  is 
also  biassed  by  the  belief  that  other  nations  are  de- 
cadent; that  they  have  lost  their  ideals;  that  Ger- 
many has  a  monopoly  of  merit;  and  it  is  further  im- 
bued with  the  ancient  Prussian  lust  of  war  for  the 
sake  of  war,  and  war  for  the  sake  of  gain. 

Such  theories  do  not  tend  towards  pliancy  in  nego- 
tiation, nor  do  they  make   for  a  high  standard  of 


286        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

honour.  Want  of  dexterity  is  balanced  by  want  of 
scruple  plus  a  mailed  fist.  To  be  successful,  this 
diplomatic  method  depends  on  the  correctness  of  the 
theories  on  which  it  is  based.  It  will  succeed  if  the 
nations  to  which  it  is  applied  are  really  decadent, 
devoid  of  ideals  and  unscrupulous.  It  will  fail  when 
it  comes  against  a  people  which  is  virile,  which  has 
a  sense  of  right,  and  which  cannot  be  corrupted. 

Thus  it  is  that  the  methods  which  failed  in  London 
succeeded  in  Constantinople.  The  soil,  naturally 
adapted  to  the  Teutonic  seed,  had  been  carefully  cul- 
tivated, and  the  ambassadorial  farmer  seems  to  have 
been  aptly  chosen.  It  is  not  often  that  one  Ambassa- 
dor has  to  write  of  a  colleague  as  Sir  Louis  Mallet 
wrote  of  the  German  Ambassador  in  Constantinople : 

"  I  think  he  may  be  telling  the  truth ;  but  every  statement 
he  makes  must  be  received  with  caution." 

That  this  was  no  exaggeration  is  clear  from  Sir 
Louis  Mallet's  story: 

"  The  German  Embassy  daily  emits  a  stream  of  mendacity 
and  calumny,  which  is  circulated  through  the  country  by  the 
Turkish  newspapers,  all  of  those  in  the  Capital  being  in  the 
pay  of  the  German  Embassy  as  a  result  of  the  large  sums 
spent  by  it  in  corruption  both  in  Constantinople  and  in  the 
provinces."  ^ 

One  of  the  stories  was  that  Japan  had  only  agreed 
to  assist  Great  Britain  in  return  for  free  immigration 
into  the  Pacific  Coast,  a  free  hand  in  China  and  a 
loan  of  £40,000,000.  Another  was  that  there  had 
been  a  revolution  in  India.  Such  diplomatic  meth- 
ods would  be  shady  enough  if  Turkey  were  already  at 
war  and  they  were  designed  to  keep  up  the  public 
enthusiasm,  but  to  use  them  in  order  to  lure  into 

2  White  Book  on  Rupture  with  Turkey,  No.  70. 


CONSPIRATORS  AT  WORK  287 

war  a  country  whose  first  Interest  was  peace,  which 
desired  peace,  was  an  act  of  miserable  turpitude. 

The  entire  story  is,  indeed,  intensely  sordid,  from 
the  false  sale  of  the  refugee  cruisers  to  the  bombard- 
ment of  Odessa.  It  may  roughly  be  divided  into 
two  parts:  the  period  before  October  26th,  and  the 
three  days  following.  During  the  first  period  the 
German  "  Conspirators,"  to  use  Sir  Louis  Mallet's 
description,  proceeded  mainly  by  negotiations  mixed 
with  corruption.  When  those  methods  seemed  likely 
to  fail,  force  was  employed,  and  force  availed. 

From  the  opening  of  the  war  there  was  a  "  cer- 
tain liveliness  "  in  Turkey,  partly  due  to  the  action 
of  the  British  Government  In  acquiring  the  Turkish 
vessels  then  being  built  in  England,  but  for  the  most 
part  probably  the  artificial  result  of  subterranean  in- 
trigue. The  sending  of  the  Goeben  and  Breslau  be- 
longed to  the  plot.  Ostensibly  they  were  sold  to 
the  Turkish  Government,  but  they  still  remained  in 
charge  of  their  German  crews.  German  officers  and 
German  money  reached  Constantinople.  Though 
neutrality  was  professed  by  the  Government,  it  was 
not  observed.  There  were  mysterious  meetings  be- 
tween Enver  Pasha  and  Bedouin  chiefs;  the  Valis 
of  certain  coast  towns  used  language  of  menace  to- 
wards British  naval  commanders;  untenable  preten- 
sions to  territorial  waters  were  advanced;  there  was 
even  a  large  manufacture  of  Indian  military  uni- 
forms, to  be  used  by  Turkish  agents  in  Egypt.  All 
along  the  Nile  Valley,  from  Cairo  to  Kordofan, 
Turkish  and  German  emissaries  were  busy,  foment- 
ing discontent  among  Arab  chiefs,  tempting  officers 
and  civil  servants  with  bribes,  smuggling  explosives 
against  the  day  when  these  seductions  would  bear 
fruit.  The  Allies  would  have  had  ample  excuse  for 
breaking  off   diplomatic   relations   any   time   during 


288        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

August,  September  and  October.  This,  however, 
they  were  resolved  not  to  do.  Their  policy  was 
clearly  to  let  the  breach  come,  if  it  must  come,  from 
Turkey  herself.  It  was  plain  that  Germany's  ob- 
ject was  to  create  unrest  among  the  Moslem  peo- 
ples of  India  and  Africa.  To  have  been  impatient 
with  Turkey  would  have  been  to  play  Germany's 
game.  So  it  was  that  Ambassadors  quietly  endured 
gross  affronts.  They  knew  themselves  played  with, 
but  they  did  their  duty  by  pointing  out  how  foolish 
Turkey  was  to  let  herself  be  made  a  cat's-paw. 

They  warned  Turkey  of  what  would  happen  if  she 
sided  with  Germany  and  Germany  was  beaten.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  did  not  ask  her  to  join  the 
Allies.  They  asked  her  neutrality,  and  for  it  they 
promised  a  guarantee  of  her  integrity  and  independ- 
ence. All  they  said  was  plain  and  simple,  all  they 
did  was  open  and  aboveboard.  The  wisdom  of 
their  course  has  been  justified  by  results.  The  world 
of  Islam  with  one  accord  has  seen  through  German 
intrigue,  and  has  at  once  bewailed  and  condemned 
the  insensate  folly  of  those  who  yielded  to  it. 

Towards  the  end  of  October  the  Conspirators 
found  themselves  compelled  to  take  decisive  action. 
They  had  got  as  much  money  from  Germany  as  they 
were  likely  to  get,  and  things  were  not  going  well 
with  the  German  armies.  If  Turkey  was  to  be 
brought  in,  it  had  to  be  then  or  never.  Accordingly 
they  decided  to  bring  matters  to  a  climax  by  offer- 
ing the  Grand  Vizier  the  alternative  of  complicity 
or  resignation.  It  would  appear  that  this  scheme 
was  abandoned,  owing  to  the  Russian  victories  on 
the  Vistula  occurring  about  this  time. 

The  ill-success  of  the  German  armies,  indeed, 
threatened  to  wreck  everything.  At  a  meeting  of 
the  Committee  Leaders  on  Oct.  26th,  it  was  decided 


THE  LAST  CHANCE  289 

to  send  Halil  Bey,  the  President,  on  a  mission  to 
Berlin;  and  this  was  regarded  as  a  partial  victory 
for  the  Peace  Party.  Halil  Bey  did  not  go,  how- 
ever, because  "  of  a  more  than  usually  blunt  hint 
from  the  German  representative  in  Constantinople." 
At  this  point,  the  War  Party  took  matters  into  their 
own  hands.  Two  capital  events  occurred:  a  body  of 
2,000  Bedouins  entered  the  Sinai  Peninsula,  with  the 
Idea  of  making  a  raid  on  the  Suez  Canal;  and  Odessa 
and  other  Russian  ports  were  bombarded  on  Oct. 
29th. 

After  this  event  the  situation  became  hopeless. 
As  Germany  had,  a  few  months  earlier,  precipitated 
war  by  her  ultimatum  to  Russia,  at  the  moment  when 
negotiation  promised  to  bring  about  accommodation 
between  Russia  and  Austria;  so  now,  for  her  ow^n 
ends,  Turkey  was  dragged  into  a  war  to  which  her 
Government,  and  probably  the  bulk  of  the  people, 
were  opposed.  But  even  then  the  Allies  gave  Tur- 
key a  last  chance.  The  Grand  Vizier,  who,  through- 
out the  piece,  seems  to  have  exaggerated  his  own  In- 
fluence or  underestimated  the  strength  of  the  un- 
scrupulous forces  opposing  him,  protested  that  he 
could  still  undo  the  work  of  Enver,  Talaat,  and  the 
German  Ambassador.  Would  the  Allies  await  the 
issue  of  a  Council  to  be  held  that  night  at  his  house? 

They  waited,  the  Council  was  held,  the  Grand 
Vizier  and  Djavid  Bey  fought  for  peace,  and  the  ma- 
jority of  the  Ministers  upheld  them;  but  nothing  was 
done.  Nothing  indeed  could  be  done  to  avert  war 
save  to  dismiss  the  German  naval  officers  and  to  expel 
the  German  military  mission.  Germany's  mtrlgues, 
however,  had  been  too  effective,  her  bribery  too 
complete.  The  conspirators  stayed,  while  the  trusted 
patriots  repeated  the  crime  of  their  forebears  who 
sold  the  Schlpka  Pass  thirty-five  years  before.     As  in 


290        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

the  old  Arabian  tale,  Turkey  was  bestridden  and 
throttled  by  an  incubus  from  which  she  never  could 
free  herself. 

On  the  fourth  of  November  Tewfik  Pasha  took 
leave  of  Sir  Edward  Grey.  Even  at  that  last  mo- 
ment, the  door  was  opened  for  Turkey's  retreat  from 
ruin. 

"  I  Informed  Tewfik  Pasha,"  says  Sir  Edward 
Grey,  "  that  if  his  Government  wished  that  hostilities 
between  the  two  countries  should  cease,  the  only 
chance  was  to  dismiss  the  German  naval  and  mili- 
tary missions."  A  few  days  before  this  M,  Sazonoff 
had  used  the  same  language  to  the  Turkish  Charge 
d'Affaires  at  Petrograd.  It  was  of  no  avail.  For- 
bearance could  go  no  further.  Anger  at  Turkish 
folly  cannot  altogether  obliterate  a  feeling  of  pity  for 
the  nation  thus  deceived  and  ruined  by  Germany's 
remorseless  and  conscienceless  policy.  The  responsi- 
bility for  what  may  happen  lies,  however,  not  with 
the  Allied  Powers  but  with  corrupt  and  misguided 
Turkey,  and  with  Germany  the  jungle  enemy  of  civili- 
zation. 


CHAPTER  XV 

SOUTH    EASTERN    EUROPE   AND   THE    BALKAN 
QUESTION 

*'  To-DAY  events  move  so  rapidly  that  It  is  exceed- 
ingly difficult  to  state  with  technical  accuracy  the 
actual  state  of  affairs,  but  it  Is  clear  that  the  peace  of 
Europe  cannot  be  preserved."  ^ 

In  one  sense  these  words  would  have  been  almost 
equally  true  at  any  time  during  the  past  decade,  as 
previous  chapters  will  have  indicated.  The  only  real 
change  in  European  conditions  on  the  afternoon  of 
the  third  of  August,  19 14,  was  one  of  swift  accelera- 
tion. Events  slowly  moving  over  a  lengthened  past 
had  come  to  sudden  climax.  In  spite  of  outward 
seeming  Europe  had  not  been  at  peace  for  many 
years.  To  say  that  two  hostile  armies  camped  within 
sight  of  each  other's  camp  fires,  are  at  peace,  merely 
because  they  await  the  dawn  before  exchanging  shots, 
is  an  illusion;  and  that  had  been  the  state  of  Europe 
since  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  through 
causes  already  discussed;  through  ambitions  and  poli- 
cies now  familiar  to  the  world.  In  all  those  trem- 
bling years  there  was,  to  all  anxious  Europe,  a  recog- 
nized source  from  which  fatal  disturbance  might 
spring.  The  festering  wound  In  the  South  Eastern 
States  was  spreading  year  by  year  its  malignant  influ- 
ence through  the  diseased  body  of  Europe.  In  the 
end  it  did  the  worst  that  all  men  feared.  What  the 
apparition  in  shining  armour  and  the  cruise  of  the 

1  Sir  Edward  Grey,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  August  3rd,  1914. 

2<JI 


292        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Panther,  each  in  turn,  had  failed  to  produce,  the 
pistol  shot  in  Serajevo  brought  on  with  incredible 
rapidity.  The  truth  about  that  crime,  could  it  be 
known,  would  furnish  a  key  to  the  whole  enigma. 
But  that  truth  cannot  be  known  now.  With  a  hide- 
ous conflict  testing  the  endurance  and  virtues  of  na- 
tions, it  will  make  clearer  the  whole  situation  if  we 
recall  the  main  incidents  in  the  grim,  yet  inspiring 
story  of  the  growth  of  nationality  in  the  Balkans;  if 
we  again  take  note  of  the  forces  which  make  the  story 
grim. 

The  history  of  the  nations  and  races  of  Balkan 
territory  is  a  prolonged  chronicle  of  discontent,  op- 
pression and  violence;  of  dishonour  and  treachery; 
but  also  of  high  ideals  and  fervent  patriotism.  All 
that  incalculable  turmoil  of  passions  and  ambitions, 
vices  and  virtues,  has  come  from  one  evil  thing  —  the 
long-continued  and  never  successful  attempt  at  the 
despotic  domination  of  one  race  by  another.  That 
is  the  germ  of  the  Balkan  disease. 

It  has  taken  five  centuries  to  drive  the  Turk  from 
tyranny  over  all  South  Eastern  Europe  to  his  present 
final  clutch  on  the  nethermost  extremity  of  that  land. 
Through  long  years  the  inhabitants  and  rightful 
owners  of  those  trampled  territories  suffered  a  misery 
of  wrongs  and  persecutions,  from  which  it  is  one  of 
the  wonders  of  history  that  they  have  survived  with 
any  remnant  of  ambition,  or  even  of  racial  self-con- 
sciousness. The  Turks  had  early  discovered  what 
has  ever  been  the  besetting  sin  of  the  Balkan  people, 
their  afflicting  proneness  to  jealous  division  among 
themselves.  Taking  advantage  of  this  by  every 
means  known  to  a  despotic  nation,  ruling  a  numeri- 
cally and  spiritually  superior  people,  they  long  con- 
trived to  hold  the  territory  against  aggression  from 
without  and  in  spite  of  internal  rebellion.     Even  now 


THE  BALKAN  AWAKENING  293 

that  the  Ottoman  Empire  has  passed  away  from  Eu- 
rope the  evil  heritage  of  that  rule  still  broods  upon 
the  land.  The  very  peoples  themselves,  and,  above 
all,  their  later  European  masters  have,  to  their  shame, 
assumed  the  traditions  and  usages  of  the  Turkish 
rule. 

History  will  record  it  to  the  honour  of  the  Serbians 
that  they  were  the  first  to  summon  the  combined  cour- 
age and  strength  to  rise  against  the  Sultan.  In  1804 
Kara  George,  the  swineherd,  led  them  in  successful 
revolt.  The  Turks  regained  control  in  1813  ;  but  at 
last,  in  1 830,  after  many  years  of  determined  fighting, 
the  Serbians,  strongly  supported  by  Russia,  achieved 
political  autonomy,  though  still  remaining  tributary 
to  the  Sultan.  The  Greeks  were  the  next  to  respond 
in  arms  to  the  call  of  the  national  spirit,  and 
they  actually  attained  complete  independence  before 
Serbia.  The  Greek  war  of  Independence,  from  1821 
to  1829,  ran  a  course  of  varied  fortune,  in  which,  at 
the  end,  the  courage  of  the  little  nation,  aided  by  the 
moral  and  material  encouragement  of  the  greater 
Powers,  succeeded  in  casting  off  the  foreign  yoke. 
The  negotiations  and  interventions  succeeding  this 
war  finally  resulted  in  conflict  between  Russia  and 
Turkey.  In  the  end  Greek  independence  was  firmly 
guaranteed,  and  the  European  possessions  and  power 
of  the  Sultan  suffered  severe  shrinkage.  Through 
the  intercession  of  Russia  the  Danubian  principalities 
of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia  became  practically  inde- 
pendent. From  these  events  and  their  accompanying 
animosities  and  ambitions  came  another  Russo-Tur- 
kish  struggle  in  1853,  which  led  directly  to  the  Cri- 
mean War. 

In  all  these  years  of  strife  the  spirit  and  freedom 
of  the  separate  Balkan  States  persisted  and  increased 
through  crime  and  turmoil,  surviving  every  check  of 


294        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

their  own  or  other's  making.  Each  upheaval  and 
each  readjustment  brought  to  some  one  of  them 
greater  independence,  and,  usually,  to  all  of  them 
greater  discontent  and  ambition.  Out  of  the 
Crimean  War  emerged  the  semi-independent  State 
of  Roumania ;  the  result  of  national  consciousness  and 
ambition  awakened  among  the  kindred  peoples  of  the 
two  adjoining  States,  Moldavia  and  Wallachia.  In 
1862  these  united  under  one  ruler  and  assumed  the 
name  Roumania.  After  a  few  years  of  civil  strife 
they  chose  as  king  a  member  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
branch  of  the  Hohenzollerns.  In  the  early  years  of 
his  reign  King  Charles  developed  a  vigorous  and 
liberal  policy  in  the  affairs  of  his  country;  and  espe- 
cially achieved  important  results  in  the  organization 
of  his  army,  with  Prussian  equipment  and  under  Prus- 
sian instruction.  His  success  in  this  largely  contrib- 
uted to  the  influential  position  which  Roumania  has 
since  held  in  Balkan  affairs.  It  is  important  to  re- 
member this  German  element  in  the  person  of  the 
ruler,  and  in  military  affairs,  when  appraising  Rou- 
mania's  relations  with  her  neighbours. 

In  1875  Turkish  oppression,  driven  to  desperate 
measures  by  losses  of  territory  and  revenue,  brought 
on  a  revolt  in  Herzegovina,  aided  and  encouraged  by 
the  Slavs  of  Bosnia,  Serbia,  Montenegro,  Bulgaria, 
and  even  Hungary.  In  the  following  year  the  vio- 
lence of  the  situation  was  increased  by  revolutions  at 
Constantinople,  with  attendant  outbreaks  of  religious 
and  racial  fanaticism  in  outrage  and  massacre.  The 
Christians  in  Bulgaria,  no  longer  able  to  endure  their 
intolerable  situation,  rose  in  rebellion.  The  Turks 
retaliated  with  a  fury  of  bloodshed  and  atrocity  which 
horrified  Europe.  Then  it  was  that  Mr.  Gladstone 
denounced  "  the  unspeakable  Turk  "  and  urged  the 
expulsion  of  the  Sultan  from  Europe.     It  remaine<i, 


THE  CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN  295 

however,  for  Serbia  and  Montenegro  to  initiate 
action.  They  declared  war  against  the  Turtcs,  and 
thus  gave  encouragement  to  a  general  uprising  in 
Bulgaria.  In  the  following  year,  Russia  —  the  mass 
of  her  people  moved  by  sympathy  with  their  suffering 
kinsmen  —  brought  her  forces  to  bear  against  Tur- 
key. Allied  with  Roumania,  now  claiming  complete 
independence,  and  with  Serbia  and  Montenegro,  the 
Russians  waged  a  victorious  campaign  almost  to  the 
very  gates  of  Constantinople, 

These  hostilities  were  concluded  in  1878  by  the 
Treaty  of  San  Stefan«o,  in  which  Serbia,  Montenegro, 
and  Roumania  were  recognized  as  independent,  and 
by  which  was  created  a  self-governing  State  of  Bul- 
garia. This  treaty  was  not  to  endure  for  long.  It 
pleased  no  one  save  the  Russians  and  the  Bulgars. 
Each  of  the  other  States  felt  itself  in  some  way  af- 
fected or  injured  by  the  redistribution  of  territories 
and  boundaries;  and  the  greater  Powers  became 
mutually  apprehensive  and  suspicious  of  the  possible 
advantages  and  increments  to  each  other  from  these 
rapid  changes  in  Balkan  affairs.  To  allay  this  com- 
mon distrust,  therefore,  and  with  the  intention  of  con- 
sidering all  interests  except  those  of  the  Sultan,  who 
was  to  be  disregarded,  the  representatives  of  the 
Powers  met  at  the  Congress  of  Berlin. 

This  Congress  was  a  cold-blooded  liquidation  of 
the  Insolvent  States  of  Turkey  In  Europe  under  the 
"  honest  brokerage  "  of  Bismarck.  The  only  defi- 
nite and  permanent  result  was  the  demolishment,  by 
partition,  of  the  Turkish  domain.  As  an  attempted 
solution  of  the  Balkan  question  It  was  a  failure. 
Most  of  what  was  done  there  was  later  undone  or  ig- 
nored; and  what  remained  led  only  to  further  dissen- 
sions among  the  several  States  and  among  the  greater 
Powers  hovering  over  them.      Montenegro,  Serbia, 


296        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

and  Roumania  were  given  freedom  from  Turkish 
suzerainty;  but  with  such  unjust  arrangement  of  their 
boundaries,  in  defiance  of  racial  claims,  as  to  give 
them  a  source  of  discontent  enduring  for  evil  even 
to  the  present  day.  Austria  was  allowed  to 
*'  occupy  "  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  in  the  interest 
of  the  general  peace.  With  what  results  we  have 
seen. 

The  failure  of  the  decisions  of  the  Congress  of 
Berlin  was  well  shown  in  the  case  of  Bulgaria.  For 
reasons  best  known  to  the  Powers,  the  Northern  Bul- 
garians were  separated  from  the  Southern  Bul- 
garians, in  spite  of  their  racial  and  historical  unity 
and  their  very  natural  desires.  It  was  attempted  to 
make  the  Bulgarians  of  the  south  forget  they  were 
Bulgarians  by  the  easy  device  of  bidding  them  call 
themselves  Eastern  Roumelians.  The  Provinces  en- 
dured this  irrational  arrangement  for  seven  years, 
and  then  disregarding  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  pro- 
claimed themselves  united;  and  they  did  it  with  such 
spirit  and  determination  that  the  Powers  thought  it 
well  not  to  Interfere.  Other  events  of  the  kind 
form  an  important  chapter  in  the  history  of  every 
Balkan  war  and  revolt.  In  nineteenth  century  zest 
for  artifical  nationality,  one  all-important  truth  was 
continually  overlooked  or  disregarded  —  honest 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  blood  and  tradition  are 
stronger  than  maps  or  treaties. 

In  the  bloody  years  preceding  the  Berlin  Congress 
the  greater  European  nations  had  been  looking  on 
the  South  Eastern  States  with  watchful  eyes,  now 
helping  here,  now  restraining  there,  in  keeping  with 
their  sympathies,  national  characteristics  and  aims. 
England  and  France  espoused  the  cause  of  Greece 
from  the  impulse  of  their  liberal  and  democratic  prin- 
ciples; Russia  supported  the  Slav  and  Christian  every- 


PLAYING  WITH  BALKAN  FIRE  297 

where  against  the  Mohammedan  Turk.  There  were 
other  and  intricate  pohtical  and  commercial  motives 
on  all  sides.  Very  early,  and  to  their  sorrow,  the 
Powers  learned  how  dangerous  to  their  mutual  rela- 
tions was  any  intervention,  however  just  or  well  in- 
tended, in  the  troubled  affairs  of  these  small  States. 
After  the  Berlin  Congress,  however,  these  affairs, 
thus  brought  into  prominence  before  the  world,  as- 
sumed growing  importance  in  European  politics. 
The  States,  themselves,  over-stimulated  by  a  new 
freedom,  and  irritated  by  the  irksome  arrangement  of 
their  territories,  fought  continually  with  one  another. 
The  opportunity  for  the  ambitious  Powers  was  irre- 
sistible. Playing  with  Balkan  fire  became  a  diplo- 
matic sport  in  South  Eastern  Europe.  It  was  a  dan- 
gerous game.  As  the  opposing  forces  in  the  Euro- 
pean balance  of  power  became  more  and  more  strictly 
aligned  into  two  hostile  camps,  and  as  the  balance  be- 
came more  and  more  finely  adjusted,  the  Balkan  ques- 
tion grew  in  importance  and  perplexity.  A  jealous 
scrutiny  of  the  trend  and  turning  of  events  there  be- 
came an  essential  policy  for  all;  The  slightest  ac- 
quisition of  further  control  or  Influence  by  either 
side  threatened  the  equilibrium. 

To  Great  Britain,  with  her  world-strewn  Empire 
and  her  immense  sea-borne  commerce,  there  is  al- 
ways and  everywhere  the  necessity  of  vigilantly  pro- 
tecting her  interests  and  safety  against  the  ambitious 
operations  of  rival  nations.  Hence,  while  she  has 
rightly  disclaimed  any  direct  personal  interest  in  the 
internal  affairs  of  the  Balkans,  she  has,  nevertheless, 
been  obliged  to  keep  her  careful  attention  upon  that 
region,  because  of  the  serious  reaction  which  certain 
developments  might  have  upon  her  rights  and  pos- 
sessions. The  position  of  the  Suez  Canal,  alone, 
would  have  made  this  precaution  necessary. 


298        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Russia,  on  her  part,  in  addition  to  her  natural 
championship  of  the  Christian  against  the  Moham- 
medan and  of  the  Slav  against  all  oppressors,  had 
vital  reasons  for  concern  in  South  Eastern  politics. 
Her  geographical  position,  and  the  climatically  ham- 
pered condition  of  her  northern  ports,  made  it  essen- 
tial that  the  trade  routes  to  the  south  and  east,  so 
necessary  for  her  internal  prosperity,  should  be 
kept  free  of  hindrance,  to  her  commerce.  To  both 
Russia  and  Great  Britain,  therefore,  the  affairs  of 
the  Balkans  have  long  been  of  grave  moment.  If 
their  separate  claims  and  purposes  have  occasion- 
ally brought  them  into  conflict,  history  has  for  the 
most  part  been  frank  to  admit  the  justification  on 
both  sides. 

Strong  influences  have  worked  to  make  the  policies 
of  Germany  and  Austria-Hungary  in  South  Eastern 
Europe  of  mutual  and  common  interest  and  ad- 
vantage. Austria,  checked  by  Prussia  in  the  north 
and  driven  out  of  Italy  in  the  south,  turned  her  activi- 
ties to  the  States  on  her  eastern  frontier  as  the  only 
opportunity  for  compensation  and  for  future  expan- 
sion. In  the  interests  of  her  commercial  ambitions 
she  bent  her  energies  towards  the  acquisition  and  de- 
velopment of  a  direct  trade  route  from  Vienna  to 
Salonica.  This  route  was  to  be  so  much  under  the 
influence  of  Austria,  that  she  should  have  free  access 
to  eastern  waters,  with  parallel  control.  To  this 
cherished  project  the  two  most  serious  obstacles  were 
Russian  power  and  Serbian  independence.  Austria 
had  long  been  jealous  of  Russian  influence,  long  ap- 
prehensive of  Russian  policy  in  the  Balkans.  Every 
increase  of  Russian  power  —  and  likewise  every 
growth  of  Balkan  independence  which  accompanied 
it  —  hampered  the  pursuit  of  Austria's  commercial 
designs.     It  has  therefore  been  to  Austria's  advan- 


AUSTRIA'S  POLICY  299 

tage  to  support  the  Turk  against  Russian  aggression; 
to  inflame  further  the  easily  kindled  jealousies  among 
the  separate  States,  so  that  in  the  end  their  weakness 
might  be  her  strength.  It  was  also  of  grave  concern 
to  her  internally  that  every  movement  towards  the 
strengthening  of  the  individual  States,  or  of  the 
Slavonic  races  in  general  should  be  restricted.  Free- 
dom and  contentment  among  the  Balkan  peoples 
could  come  only  at  the  expense  of  the  Dual  Alon- 
archy.  Austria-Hungary  knew  this,  and  acted  ac- 
cordingly. 

It  was  Metternlch  who  called  Italy,  in  the  days  of 
her  weakness,  "  a  geographical  expression."  That 
great  and  sinister  statesman,  whose  rule  and  doctrine 
have  been  the  unstable  bulwark  of  Austria's  strength, 
might  well  have  applied  the  term  to  his  own  nation. 
Those  very  conditions  which  Italy  overcame,  Austria, 
the  last  rallying-ground  of  feudalism,  has  preserved. 
What  she  would  not  and  could  not  recognize,  she 
has  tried  to  strangle.  To-day  it  is  destroying  her. 
Look  at  the  map  of  the  Dual  Monarchy.  By  its  arti- 
ficial obtrusiveness  it  is  an  offence  and  an  aggression 
to  all  her  neighbours,  a  fatal  infirmity  to  herself.  In 
a  great  jagged  outline  It  stabs  north  into  Galicia,  east 
into  Roumania,  south  into  the  Slavonic  territories  of 
Bosnia,  Dalmatia,  and  Montenegro,  and  southwest 
into  Italy.  A  more  illogical  creation  of  conquest  and 
diplomacy  could  not  be  conceived.  It  is  a  colossal 
impertinence  in  the  face  of  all  sanctions  of  race,  re- 
ligion, history,  and  common  sense.  The  frontier  of 
Austria-Hungary  is  a  living  wound  in  the  politics  of 
Europe.  Across  her  borders,  on  every  side,  the 
Monarchy  is  fronted  by  the  animosities  of  States  and 
peoples  compelled  mutely  to  witness  the  bondage  of 
their  kinsmen,  raped  from  all  natural  associations 
of  blood  and  tradition  to  build  up  this  "  ramshackle 


300        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

empire."  Within  she  Is  torn  by  the  rage  and  hatred 
of  vassal  subjects,  chafing  under  oppression  and 
stirred  to  revolt  by  the  sight  of  their  free  brethren  in 
the  independent  States.  The  cold  statistical  factof 
this  precarious  structure  is,  that  twenty-one  million 
people  rule  over  and  attempt  to  control  the  thought 
and  the  will,  as  they  do  the  lives  and  liberties,  of 
thirty-two  millions,  with  whom  they  have  no  ties  or 
relations  save  those  they  are  able  to  impose  by  power 
and  might;  while  this  ruling  minority  Is  again  com- 
posed of  two  utterly  unassociated  races  with  no 
mutual  sympathies  save  that  of  common  support  In 
the  task  of  suppressing  the  aspirations  of  their  more 
numerous  dependants.  In  this  task  every  means  of 
discrimination  and  oppression  known  to  the  history 
of  the  Overlord  has  been  used  to  postpone  the  in- 
evitable readjustment.  As  the  majority  of  this  vast 
subject  population  are  of  Slavonic  blood,  Austria- 
Hungary  has  had  to  watch  with  growing  appre- 
hension the  steady  gain  In  strength  and  independence 
of  this  race  in  the  adjoining  States;  to  combat  it  as 
best  she  dared  by  all  manner  of  intrigue  and  interfer- 
ence, political,  economic,  and  educational.  This  is 
the  long-drawn,  sullen  conflict  between  Austria- 
Hungary  on  the  one  side  and  Serbia  and  Russia  on 
the  other.  Independent  and  democratic  Serbia  Is  the 
ideal  and  inspiration  of  all  the  lesser  Slavic  peoples. 
Russia,  powerful  and  loyal,  is  their  protector  and 
champion.  Against  the  Influence  of  these  two,  Aus- 
tria has  been  forced  to  strain  every  nerve  in  the  at- 
tempt to  suppress  the  Pan-Slavic  spirit,  so  dangerous 
to  her  dynastic  security. 

A  brief  historical  reminder  will  serve  to  show  how 
the  internal  problems  of  Austria  haye  always  dictated 
her  foreign  policy.     She  has  consistently  and  tradi- 


GERMANY'S  SHORT  CUT  301 

tionally  been  the  opponent  of  the  freedom  of  small 
States  and  the  unification  of  kindred  peoples.  In  the 
Greek  wars  of  liberty  and  independence  it  was  Aus- 
trian support  of  Turkey  which  prolonged  the  agony 
of  that  struggle.  When  the  Belgians  revolted  against 
Holland,  Austria  and  Prussia  were  ready  and  eager 
to  crush  their  hopes.  Italy's  freedom  and  solidarity 
were  won  only  through  conflict  with  Austria.  By 
habit  and  by  necessity  Austria  has  long  been  the 
enemy  to  national  liberty. 

The  interests  of  Germany  In  South  Eastern  Eu- 
rope are  either  coincident  or  parallel  with  those  of 
Austria.  In  no  way  do  they  conflict,  so  long  as  Ger- 
many retains  her  present  dominion  over  the  Dual 
IVIonarchy.  Just  as  Austria  sought  to  control  the 
Vienna-Salonica  route,  so  Germany,  always  ample  in 
her  ambitions,  conceived  the  idea  of  expanding  the 
Austrian  project  into  a  great  Pan-Germanic  line  from 
Berlin  to  Bagdad.  To  the  German  imperial  vision- 
aries the  Bagdad  Railway  not  only  meant  the  opening 
of  Eastern  commerce  to  Germany  by  a  shorter  route 
than  the  Suez  Canal;  it  even  promised  the  Germani- 
zation,  and  finally  permanent  conquest,  of  Egypt, 
Syria,  Arabia,  Persia  and  India. 

Thus  it  was  the  Germans  openly  declared  the 
Turks  to  be  their  "  natural  allies  "  and,  with  Austria, 
exerted  every  Influence  not  only  to  conciliate  the  Sul- 
tan, but  to  strengthen  his  grasp  upon  the  last  remnant 
of  Europe  within  his  hands.  In  the  concessions 
granted  to  the  German  railway  companies  by  the 
Sultan  in  1902,  Germany  achieved  a  virtual  protecto- 
rate over  the  Turkish  Empire,  and  won  an  advan- 
tage in  the  Near  East  over  all  the  other  Powers. 
And  now  Turkey  is  the  ally  in  war  of  Germany. 
The  ruin  which  long  years  of  diplomacy  and  trickery 


302         THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

made  ready,  the  menacing  guns  of  the  Goehen  made 
certain;  and  Turkey  moves  on  to  her  doom.  Inex- 
tricably Involved  In  the  Intrigues  of  greater  Powers, 
hounded  on  every  side  by  guilty  fears  of  attack  and 
spoliation,  deceived,  bribed  and  threatened,  the  blind 
and  Impotent  Invalid  of  Europe  stumbles  forward, 
scimitar  In  hand,  to  death  and  dissolution. 

It  must  be  remembered  where  Germany  Is  con- 
cerned, that  friendliness  with  the  Turks  and  the  sup- 
port of  Turkey  In  Europe  have  always  brought  two 
results:  the  alienation  of  Russia,  and  Injury  to  the 
Christian  Balkan  peoples.  Germany  daring  the  one, 
did  not  hesitate  at  the  other.  Whatever  advantages 
she  may  have  won  by  her  Balkan  and  Ottoman  poli- 
cies, they  have  cost  her  dear.  The  armies  hammer- 
ing at  the  eastern  gates  of  Prussia  to-day  are  the  re- 
ward for  her  betrayal  of  Slavic  friendship,  of  which 
over  so  many,  many  years  she  had  complete  control. 
Germans  In  the  service  of  Russia  had  managed  her 
administration  and  Inspired  her  foreign  policy.  Rus- 
sian Tsars  did  the  bidding  of  Prussian  Kings. 
Russia's  misgovernment  of  Poland  had  Its  origin  In 
Prussian  Influence  and  policy.  When  Russia  would 
have  been  liberal,  Prussia  drove  her  to  be  tyrannical. 
A  discontented  Russian  Poland  was  a  constant  ad- 
vantage to  Prussia. 

With  the  hope  of  commercial  gain,  which  has  led 
Germany  to  support  Austrian  tactics  In  South  Eastern 
Europe,  other  motives  have  worked.  Germany's 
controlling  hand  over  Austria-Hungary,  and  the 
value  of  the  latter  as  an  ally,  rest  upon  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  German-Magyar  hegemony.  The  very 
dlflicultles  which  she  herself  has  encountered  In  the 
pursuit  of  her  repressive  measures  In  Prussian  Poland 
have  made  Germany  of  one  mind  with  Austria  con- 


"  THE  BATTLE-CRY  OF  FREEDOM  "      303 

cernlng  any  growth  of  Slavic  power  or  freedom  in  the 
south. 

That  aspiration  which  stirs  the  Southern  Slavs  to 
self-expression,  to  ardour  for  independence  and  unity 
on  racial  lines,  is  only,  for  the  present,  the  predomi- 
nant manifestation  of  the  great  hope  which  has  raised 
its  common  cry  in  many  tongues  of  suffering  men.  It 
is  the  same  zeal  which  has  kept  the  ancient  tribes  of 
Albania  unsubjugated  and  unsubmissive  through 
years  of  tyranny;  which  awoke  the  broken  Bulgars  to 
successful  effort;  which  calls  the  Roumanians,  though 
proudly  claiming  another  race,  to  join  the  common 
cause  in  the  final  struggle  for  this  ideal.  _  It  is  the 
same  cry  from  Greece  to  Galicia:  freedom,  independ- 
ence, and  self-respect.  We  of  the  West  have  been 
slow  to  realize  that  other  lesser  and  more  primitive 
peoples  might  be  honestly  desiring  those  things  which 
we  so  richly  enjoy. 

The  year  1908  affords  an  excellent  illustration  of 
the  various  currents  and  eddies  in  the  affairs  of  these 
turbulent  States.  At  the  time  of  the  occupation  of 
Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  in  1878  Serbia  had  relapsed 
into  a  position  of  subservient  vassalage  to  Austria; 
and  the  Southern  Slavs  everywhere  had  failed  to 
achieve  a  strength  commensurate  with  their  spirit  and 
ambition.  Twenty-five  years,  however,  accom- 
plished much.  In  1903  came  the  revolution  at  Bel- 
grade, with  its  attendant  ghastliness  of  murder  and 
outrage,  horrifying  the  civilized  w^orld.  Those 
hideous  events,  though  they  brought  Serbia  low  in 
public  esteem,  were  at  least  not  without  material  bene- 
fit to  her.  By  the  sanguinary  and  shameful  removal 
of  her  pro-Austrian  rulers  she  made  final  escape  from 
an  insufferable  tutelage.  The  impetus  given  to  the 
aspirations  of  the  Southern  Slavs  generally  by  the 


304        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

event  was  tremendous.  A  free  Slav  State,  supported 
and  protected  by  Russia,  gave  hope  and  encourage- 
ment to  all  others  of  that  race  still  enduring  the  tradi- 
tional bondage. 

This  was  a  definite  set-back  to  Austria.  It 
brought  further  difficulties  to  her  never  easy  internal 
affairs;  it  was  a  serious  restriction  to  her  foreign 
policies.  She  waited  the  opportunity  for  retaliation. 
It  came  in  1908.  In  that  year  she  took  advantage  of 
the  Young  Turkish  revolution,  formally  to  annex 
Bosnia  and  Herzegovina.  Serbia  and  Montenegro, 
offended  and  seriously  threatened  by  this  move,  rnade 
vain  protests.  Russia,  with  her  army  disorganized 
and  her  strength  not  yet  recovered  from  the  Japanese 
War,  was  forced  to  the  keen  humiliation  of  giving 
way  before  Austro-German  aggression. 

It  was  characteristic  of  Austria  that  she  could  not 
be  satisfied  with  this  achievement.  She  must  needs 
add  brutal  insult  to  real  injury.  Feeling  that  popular 
opinion  and  future  history  would  not  hold  her  above 
suspicion,  she  decided  to  provide  herself  with  a  shield 
and  justification  for  these  acts.  To  this  end  she  per- 
petrated one  of  the  meanest  and  clumsiest  plots  to 
which  a  great  nation  has  ever  lent  cognizance  or  sup- 
port. In  the  summer  of  1908  Austria  and  Hungary 
together  connived  In  an  orgy  of  treason-hunts  in 
Croatia.  Agents  provocateurs  beat  up  the  miserable 
quarry,  and  arrests  were  wholesale  and  indiscrimi- 
nate. The  victims  of  this  despotic  drag-net  were 
held  as  hostages  against  any  action  by  indignant 
Serbia.  To  cover  these  inquisitorial  methods  the 
infamous  High  Treason  Trial  was  begun  at  Agram, 
as  is  related  in  an  earlier  chapter. 

These  wretched  tactics  brought  their  own  reward. 
The  whole  Slavic  brotherhood  in  the  Balkans,  en- 
raged by  the  treachery  of  Austria,  stifled  all  jealous- 


THE  BALKAN  LEAGUE  305 

ies  between  themselves,  and  the  Balkan  League  was 
formed  for  common  defence.  Russia,  stirred  pro- 
foundly by  the  wrongs  of  her  kinsmen  and  chagrined 
at  her  own  impotence,  resolved  never  again  through 
weakness  or  irresolution  to  accept  such  an  affront  at 
the  hands  of  Germany  and  Austria.  Straightway 
Serbia  began  to  organize  and  perfect  her  army.  The 
later  Balkan  wars  should  have  warned  Austria  of 
Serbia's  determination,  and  of  the  success  with  which 
she  was  preparing  to  enforce  it,  and  has  enforced  it. 

Austria  and  Germany  confidently  awaited  the  out- 
come of  the  wars  in  19 12,  believing  that  separate 
ambitions  and  mutual  jealousies  among  the  States 
would  soon  destroy  the  League.  This  cynical  hope 
was  almost  justified.  Bulgaria,  insatiable  for  gain, 
listened  to  insidious  promptings  from  Berlin  and 
Vienna,  and  revolted  from  the  League,  claiming  a 
lion's  share  of  the  spoils.  But  that  was  as  far  as  it 
went.  Serbia  and  Greece  proved  equal  to  the  emer- 
gency, and  Bulgaria  was  well  punished  for  her  treach- 
ery. To  add  to  the  Austro-German  disappoint- 
ment, Roumania,  a  spectator  only  of  the  first  war, 
asserted  her  integrity  by  taking  up  the  cause  of 
her  sister  States.  The  only  consolation  which  re- 
mained for  Austria  was  her  success  in  circumvent- 
ing Serbia's  hopes  for  an  Adriatic  port  by  a  hypo- 
critical pretence  of  creating  an  autonomous  State  out 
of  Albania. 

The  defeat  of  Turkey,  and  the  general  strengthen- 
ing, materially  and  spiritually,  of  the  Southern  Slavs, 
which  resulted  from  these  wars  was  most  disastrous 
to  the  plans  of  the  Germanic  Powers.  Lacking 
leaders  and  without  common  policy,  the  Balkan  States 
had  been  doomed  to  flounder  hopelessly  in  the  meshes 
of  Austrian  intrigue.  Out  of  this  wretched  situation 
Serbia    led    the    way.     Victorious    in    war,    nearly 


3o6        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

doubled  in  territory  and  population,  united  In  spirit, 
Independent,  and  democratic,  she  became  the  type  and 
focus  of  all  hopes.  Also  behind  Serbia  stood 
Russia,  silently  gathering  strength,  with  what  ef- 
fectiveness we  are  only  now  beginning  to  realize. 

The  breach  between  Slav  and  German  had  become 
complete  and  Irreconcilable.  In  the  north,  Russian 
dignity  stood  opposed  to  Teuton  ambition.  In  the 
south,  the  unquenchable  spirit  of  the  race  awaited  the 
final  struggle  against  despotism  and  oppression.  By 
Its  very  nature  the  Slavic  movement  was  bound  to 
succeed.  All  the  Influences  of  modern  political 
thought  and  enlightened  forms  of  government  en- 
couraged Its  growth.  The  spread  of  education 
amongst  the  subject  races,  with  the  realization  of 
their  position,  brought  the  will  to  escape.  Austria 
could  only  view  with  grave  apprehension  the  gradual 
loosening  of  her  grasp  upon  these  States  and  the  in- 
sidious weakening  of  her  control  over  her  own  restive 
population.  Germany,  conscious  of  this  degenera- 
tion of  her  ally,  urged  Austria  to  redouble  her  futile 
reactionary  efforts.  It  now  became  urgent  to  Prus- 
sian hopes  that  the  long  awaited  day  might  arrive 
before  Austria  was  too  feeble  and  disrupted  to  be  of 
any  aid  in  the  struggle.  A  period  of  utter  political 
depravity  fell  upon  South  Eastern  Europe. 

To  the  credit  of  the  Austrians  It  must  be  recorded 
that  conditions  In  their  half  of  the  Monarchy  had  im- 
proved. Liberal  reforms  had  been  Inaugurated, 
and,  by  the  conciliatory  measures  of  leaders  like  the 
Archduke  Ferdinand,  the  material  condition  of  the 
subject  peoples  had  been  ameliorated.  In  many 
places  In  Austria,  Indeed,  the  administrative  power 
had  been  so  far  readjusted  that  the  Germans  were 
rapidly  being  forced  to  take  the  defensive  against 
their  more  numerous  Slav  fellow-citizens.     For  the 


SERB  VERSUS  MAGYAR  307 

Hungarian  half  of  the  Imperial  edifice,  however, 
no  censure  can  be  too  sev^ere.  Blindly  ignoring  the 
lesson  of  their  own  past,  the  Magyars  stopped  at 
nothing  to  insure  and  preserve  their  political 
hegemony.  Every  method  which  intrigue  could  de- 
vise was  employed  to  deny  the  subject  races  their  con- 
stitutional and  human  rights.  It  is  little  wonder  that 
the  independent  Serbs  felt  it  their  mission  to  relieve 
the  unhappiness  of  their  kinsmen  under  this  oppres- 
sion, and  to  this  end  did  not  hesitate  to  carry  the  war 
into  the  enemy's  country.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that 
much  of  the  unrest  in  the  Slavonic  territories  of  Aus- 
tria-Hungary was  due  to  propaganda  originating 
from  Belgrade.  The  nature  and  success  of  these 
operations  brought  retaliation  in  kind.  The  only 
hope  for  the  preservation  of  the  Dual  Monarchy  lay 
in  the  destruction  of  Serbia.  On  the  one  side  was  the 
relentless  German-Magyar  despotism,  wielding  its 
appropriate  weapons  to  gain  its  necessary  ends;  and 
on  the  other,  the  desperate  zeal  of  the  Serbs,  striving 
for  freedom  and  self-expression.  All  the  wretched 
tangle  of  petty  motives  cannot  however  concern  us 
now.  The  world  is  not  troubling  about  details  to- 
day. Only  fundamentals  count.  On  the  twenty- 
eighth  day  of  June  a  fanatical  boy  shot  a  man  at  Sera- 
jevo.  That  boy  knew  little  about  alliances  and 
treaties  and  balances  and  secret  diplomacy.  Yet,  for 
all  that,  he  and  his  silly  pistol  brought  the  worst  fears 
of  all  Europe  to  red  fruition.  To  Germany  came 
the  chance  to  spring  her  mine. 

When  the  Archduke  Ferdinand  died  the  hopes  of 
Austria-Hungary  died  with  him.  Patriotism  is  a  dif- 
ficult quality  to  maintain  in  a  land  which  is  only  a 
dynastic  fiction.  Yet  if  any  Austrian  of  this  genera- 
tion could  pretend  to  that  virtue  it  was  the  murdered 
Archduke.     He  was  the  last  support  of  his  tottering 


3o8        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Empire.  Where  he  was  not  loved  he  was  respected. 
Standing  as  he  did  between  the  German  reactionaries 
and  the  Slavic  insurgents,  he  alone  had  the  power  to 
hold  those  irreconcilable  elements  together  or  apart 
as  necessity  demanded;  and  for  this  very  reason  both 
parties  regarded  his  future  advent  to  the  throne  with 
profound  distrust.  His  ultimate  fate  was  the  re- 
ward for  attempting  a  brave  but  impossible  thing. 

Strangely  enough,  the  only  authoritative  commen- 
tary which  we  now  have  upon  the  Serajevo  crime 
comes  from  the  lips  of  the  murdered  man  himself. 
The  Archduke  had  the  privilege,  seldom  granted  to 
royal  martyrs,  of  making  what  may  almost  be  con- 
sidered as  a  posthumous  statement.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  so  little  pains  was  taken  to  guard  the 
royal  progress  through  the  hostile  streets  of  Serajevo 
that  the  would-be  assassins  were  able  to  make  two 
murderous  attempts,  the  second  one  successful. 
After  the  first  of  these  attempts,  it  Is  reported  on 
good  authority  that  the  Archduke  said:  "  The  fel- 
low will  get  the  Golden  Cross  of  Merit  for  this." 

We  must  leave  these  secret  and  Inscrutable  things, 
and  the  none  too  enigmatical  words  of  the  Archduke, 
and  consider  the  Immediate  effects  of  the  crime. 
They  are  more  apparent  and  more  important  to  the 
world  just  now  than  all  Its  obscure  causes. 

It  Is  but  poor  respect  to  the  followers  of  Met- 
ternlch  and  Bismarck  to  believe  that  circumstances, 
so  favourable  to  Germanic  hopes,  were  of  purely 
fortuitous  origin.  The  Day  had  dawned;  and  Ger- 
many was  no  laggard  to  the  call  of  her  self-appointed 
destiny.  This  time  it  was  in  no  martial  masquerade 
of  bright  metal  with  which  she  supported  Austria,  but 
In  all  the  deadly  earnest  of  dull  grey  mobilization. 

How  the  other  nations  met  this  crisis  is  recorded 


SMALL  STATES  309 

in  preceding  chapters.  Future  ages  will  reflect  with 
awe  upon  a  great  spectacle  of  human  solidarity. 
Civil  strife,  social  rebellion,  political  dissension,  all 
the  unnecessary  impedimenta  of  ordinary  national  life 
were  cast  overboard,  as  Dreadnoughts  are  cleared 
for  action;  and  the  peoples  of  the  world  stepped  for- 
ward to  meet  their  fate  and  to  decide  the  destiny  of 
mankind.  The  false  peace  of  the  long,  waiting  years 
was  ended.  In  its  place  came  the  relief  of  good 
honest  combat;  to  have  its  way  and  be  done. 

And  being  done,  what  then?  This  world  that  we 
know  is  doomed  if  it  has  not  the  wit  to  profit  by  its 
own  past  history.  From  the  Balkan  States  came  the 
immediate  cause  of  this  war,  and  from  the  Balkan 
States  may  be  learned  the  essential  lesson  for  the 
future.  The  long-continued  effort  to  suppress  the 
vital  aspirations  of  a  subject  race  has  brought  catas- 
trophe upon  the  whole  world.  One  small,  seething 
kettle  of  barbarism  has  boiled  over  and  flayed  the 
civilization  of  Europe.  At  the  end  of  it  all,  then, 
may  it  not  be  hoped  that  the  great  nations,  wearied 
and  sickened  with  carnage  and  ruin,  will  see  to  it  that 
the  cause  of  all  this  havoc  is  removed  from  the  path 
of  future  progress? 

To  Germany  small  States  are  an  abomination. 
The  endless  variations  from  type  which  are  encour- 
aged by  the  smaller  States  are  repugnant  to  her 
sense  of  ordered  uniformity;  the  individualism  natu- 
rally arising  from  the  public  opinion  of  limited  com- 
munities is  in  conflict  with  her  organized  mechanism 
of  thought;  she  finds  in  their  enforced  vigilance  an 
age-long  struggle  for  existence,  seminaries  of  free- 
dom abhorrent,  even  fatal  to  her  disciplined  autoc- 
racy; she  sees  in  them  the  eternal  indictment  of  her 
doctrine  that  size  is  sanctity  and  strength  the  rule  and 


310        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

measure  of  law.  Liberty  has  ever  had  its  bh'th  in 
the  small  community.  That  which  was  true  of 
Hellas  and  of  Rome,  is  true  to-day.  The  Balkan 
States  are  to  the  Europe  of  this  century  what  Hol- 
land and  Belgium,  Switzerland,  the  Tyrol  and 
Navarre  were  to  the  Europe  of  the  last  three  hundred 
years;  what  the  Greek  Republics  were  to  Europe  be- 
fore the  Christian  era.  The  sin-darkened  cloud 
which  hangs  over  South  Eastern  Europe  cannot 
wholly  conceal  the  great  forces  of  liberty  and  prog- 
ress which  are  struggling  to  find  expression  beneath 
the  violence  of  war.  To  an  autocracy  throned  on 
bayonets,  to  a  constitution  modelled  on  the  barrack- 
yard,  such  aspirations  are  hateful,  are  pregnant  with 
danger.  So  Germany  has  ever  regarded  small  States 
with  a  contempt  that  is  half  fear;  so  she  has  con- 
quered and  so  ground  them  down. 

If  Germany  and  Austria  could  win  in  this  war,  it 
would  be  because  those  ideals  and  methods  of  govern- 
ment which  they  represent  are  more  durable  than  we 
believe  them  to  be.  When  they  admit  their  defeat, 
come  that  soon  or  late,  there  will  be  exposed  the  in- 
herent and  disastrous  fallacy  in  those  ideals  and 
methods  which  they  now  so  vainly  try  to  impose  upon 
an  aggrieved  and  revolted  world.  This  globe,  which 
has  survived  Philip  of  Spain  and  Napoleon  of  Cor- 
sica, will  survive  William  of  Potsdam,  and  will  see  to 
It  that,  not  only  by  the  overwhelming  voice  of  popu- 
lar sentiment,  but  by  every  device  within  the  ingenuity 
of  peace-loving  and  law-abiding  nations,  it  will  be 
impossible  for  another  such  pretender  to  the  Im- 
perial throne  of  the  universe  ever  to  arise. 

The  future  security  of  Europe,  the  future  peace 
of  the  world,  will  depend  upon  the  removal  of  condi- 
tions which  made  this  war  possible  and  Inevitable. 
The  Teuton  ideal  of  dominion  by  might  must  be  cut 


FUTURE  SECURITY  311 

out  like  a  cankerous  growth  from  the  body  of  Eu- 
rope, that  it  may  never  infect  the  being  of  any  other 
race  or  nation.  The  belief  that  one  race  or  State 
may,  by  force  and  power  of  arms,  impose  its  will  upon 
the  spiritual  lives  of  another  race  or  State  is 
as  dangerous  as  it  is  unsuccessful.  It  is  degrading 
alike  to  upholder  and  to  victim.  The  whole  history 
of  South  Eastern  Europe  bears  tragic  witness  to  the 
wrongs  and  perils  of  the  system ;  and  wherever  else 
the  German  grasp  has  tightened  the  baleful  influence 
of  this  ideal  has  been  felt.  It  has  brought  neither 
satisfaction  nor  profit  to  the  Germans  in  their  colo- 
nies. In  Alsace-Lorraine,  in  Schleswig-Holstein, 
and  in  Prussian  Poland  it  has  produced  only  injustice 
and  writhing  discontent;  in  Galicia  and  in  the  Slavonic 
territories  of  Austria-Hungary  it  has  been  brutally 
futile. 

For  this  wasteful  and  impotently  reactionary  sys- 
tem must  be  substituted  another  of  proven  worth  and 
benefit.  Not  in  boasting  or  in  vain  pride  may  it  be 
claimed  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  ideal  and  method  fur- 
nishes the  proper  substitute  with  which  to  redress  the 
wrongs  of  the  past.  Common  sense  can  scarcely 
deny  the  efficiency  of  the  British  method.  India, 
Africa,  and  Erench  Canada  show  the  effects  of  a  ra- 
tional and  effective  treatment  of  the  race  question. 
Surely  there  is  in  this  alone  deep  reason  to  feel  that 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  nations  fighting  to-day  for  these 
principles  to  see  to  it  that  they  are  applied  by  all  great 
Powers  in  their  relations  with  lesser  States.  We  of 
the  greater  nations  to-day  have  been  taught  humility 
and  respect  by  one  of  these  small  communities. 
Belgium  has  shown  us  how  inestimably  precious  the 
small  nation  is;  how  it  leavens  the  mass;  and  how 
fundamentally  necessary  for  the  political  and  spirit- 
ual welfare  of  the  brotherhood  of  peoples  it  is  that 


312        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

the  weaker  members  shall  be  guaranteed  full  free- 
dom. 

"  The  merits  of  the  dispute  between  Austria  and  Serbia 
were  not  the  concern  of  His  Majesty's  Government."  ^ 

That  position  was  properly  assumed  as  long  as 
there  was  the  faintest  hope  of  preserving  the  peace 
of  Europe;  but  with  the  peace  of  Europe  shattered 
beyond  repair,  and  the  fondest  hopes  of  a  new  cen- 
tury wrecked  with  fire  and  shrapnel,  it  now  becomes 
most  vitally  the  concern  of  Great  Britain  to  provide 
by  every  resource  in  her  power  a  security  for  future 
generations  against  any  such  disastrous  disputes,  irre- 
spective of  their  merits.  The  development  of  the 
two  principles  upon  which  Anglo-Saxon  civilization  is 
based  will  provide  that  security.  There  must  be 
everywhere  a  wider  extension  of  liberty  to  those  di- 
versities in  thought  and  action  which  spring  from 
race  and  tradition;  and  there  must  accompany  it  a 
general  strengthening  of  the  mutual  regard  for  pub- 
lic law  and  equity  among  nations.  It  is  for  these 
two  principles  that  this  war  is  being  fought.  And 
with  all  its  cost  and  sacrifice  it  will  have  been  in  vain, 
if  at  the  end  these  principles  are  not  reaffirmed  and 
strengthened.  To  the  Balkans  in  particular  they 
should  be  faithfully  applied  in  such  a  territorial  re- 
distribution on  racial  and  national  lines  as  may 
promise  the  growth  of  liberty,  contentment,  and 
comity  among  long  afflicted  peoples,  and  so  guard 
the  peace  of  Europe  against  further  rupture  from 
that  source.  As  upon  the  re-establishment  of  a  free 
and  independent  Belgium  now  depends  the  whole  fu- 
ture of  international  law  and  justice,  so  upon  free 
and  contented  States  in  the  Balkans  depends  the  fu- 

2  sir  Edward  Grey;  British  White  Paper,  No.  5. 


RACE  AND  LAW  313 

ture  hope  of  political  liberty  in  Europe.  Only  the 
most  wilful  blindness  can  ignore  the  lessons  of  Bel- 
gium and  the  Balkans.  By  respect  for  race  alone 
will  come  sympathy  and  amity  among  the  peoples  of 
the  world;  and  by  the  respect  for  law  alone  will  come 
concord  and  community  of  spirit. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

CIVILIZATION   AND   THIS   WAR 

This  World  War  has  been  fruitful  in  surprises;  in 
the  revelation  of  new  factors  of  prodigious  conse- 
quence; in  the  abasement  of  many  theories  with  at- 
tendant disappointments.  The  most  tragic  of  the 
disappointments  has  been  suffered  by  those  who 
thought  that,  murderous  as  the  mechanism  of  war  had 
become,  its  methods  and  morals  had  so  far  advanced 
as  to  rob  it  of  its  most  poignant  terrors.  They  be- 
lieved that  while  modern  science  had,  with  devilish 
skill,  made  the  battlefield  an  inferno  so  terrible,  that 
it  probably  had  over-reached  itself  by  making  battles 
almost  impossible,  at  least  the  wars  of  the  present 
would  be  less  dreadful  than  those  of  the  past.  Both 
these  predictions  were  wrong.  The  present  war  has 
shown  us  that  human  nature  retains  reserves  of  stout- 
ness which  triumph  over  the  paralysing  strokes  of 
science;  that  mind  and  flesh  and  blood  can  at  long 
last  defeat  the  machine.  In  this,  distressing  as  the 
results  of  the  conflict  are,  we  may  find  confidence  for 
the  future  of  the  race.  It  is  stronger  of  nerve  and 
soul  than  we  had  thought  it.  But  the  disproof  of  the 
second  and  more  hopeful  prognosis  leads  to  a  less 
cheering  conclusion.  If,  during  the  last  few  months 
we  have  seen  human  nature  rising  to  as  heroic  heights 
as  it  has  ever  known,  we  have  also  seen  it  sinking  to 
new  depths  of  infamy.  Things  have  been  done  in 
Flanders  and  in  France,  in  Poland  and  Galicia,  which 
might  induce  the  belief  that  the  moral  progress  of 
mankind  has  been  painfully  small. 

The  disappointment  Is  the  more  bitter  because  the 
314 


CLASSIC  AND  MEDI/EVAL  WAR         315 

war  shows  that  one  of  the  most  advanced  European 
races  Is  still  a  slave  to  Force,  and  believes  that  power 
gives  warrant  for  rejecting  humane  principles.  For 
years  men  have  striven  to  govern  war  by  rules  which 
should  palpably  reduce  the  sufferings  of  combatants 
and  mitigate  the  position  of  the  non-combatant  civil 
populations:  the  Geneva  Convention  and  the  Confer- 
ences at  Brussels  and  The  Hague  laboured  bravely 
towards  that  end.  Loyally  carried  into  effect,  these 
rules  would  have  been  of  the  highest  value;  but  that 
they  were  observances  voluntarily  imposed  upon 
themselves  by  civilized  nations  was  infinitely  more 
valuable. 

It  may  have  been  superstition  which  made  the 
tropaion  of  the  Greeks  immune  even  from  those 
whose  de»feat  it  commemorated;  but  whatever  the 
origin  of  such  rules,  we  know  that  over  two  thousand 
years  ago  regulations  were  made  intended  to  diminish 
the  harshness  of  war.  War  in  the  old  days  was  a 
barbarous  business  at  best,  but  it  was  not  utterly  anar- 
chical; there  were  limits.  Towns  were  razed  to  the 
ground  and  the  land  sown  with  salt,  but  many  cities 
—  cities  destroyed  in  this  war  —  survived  centuries 
of  conflict. 

In  mediaeval  war  there  was  but  little  mercy;  but 
there  was  a  certain  fellowship  among  the  orders  of 
knighthood  which  opened  the  gates  gradually  to  ideas 
of  compassion,  while  it  certainly  developed  the  sense 
of  honourable  obligation.  It  is,  however,  remark- 
able that  even  In  those  days  the  German  States  lagged 
behind  in  the  march  of  humanity.  The  German 
knights  were  robust  lighters,  but  they  were  not  sports- 
men, they  did  not  "  play  the  game."  Frolssart,  writ- 
ing In  the  days  of  that  star  of  chivalry,  the  Black 
Prince,  laments  that  It  was  Impossible  to  teach  the 
German  knights  the  principles  of  true  knightliness. 


3i6        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

This  moral  sense  even  crystallized  Into  rules,  made 
by  King  John,  Richard  I,  Richard  II  and  Henry  V, 
the  latter  proclaiming  the  inviolability  of  churches, 
women,  children  and  tillers  of  the  soil.  Primitive 
and  incomplete  as  were  these  rules,  frequently  as 
they  must  have  been  disregarded,  they  marked  a 
definite  stirring  of  conscience,  they  did  much  to  miti- 
gate the  horrors  of  war.  With  the  Renaissance 
came  a  marked  advance  towards  modern  practices, 
rules  and  regulations.  As  art  developed,  as  men  be- 
gan to  read  In  printed  books,  as  trade  and  commerce 
became  honourable  occupations,  new  ideas  asserted 
themselves  of  the  duty  of  man  to  man.  There  was 
still  enough  of  cruelty  and  to  spare,  but  men  began 
to  protest  against  it.  The  excesses  of  Alva,  the 
treatment  of  the  Indians  by  the  successors  of  Cortes 
and  Pizarro,  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  were 
no  longer  looked  upon  as  normal  incidents;  they  be- 
gan to  revolt  mankind.  By  tacit  agreement  the  na- 
tions relaxed  to  some  extent  the  rigours  of  warfare. 
The  regulations  of  war  were  extended  by  the  Tudor 
monarchs,  and,  as  in  the  American  Civil  War,  so  In 
the  struggle  between  Charles  and  the  Parliament 
"  Laws  of  War  "  were  drawn  up  by  the  Duke  of 
Northumberland  and  Lord  Essex  which  made  It  com- 
paratively humane.  It  came  to  lose  certain  of  Its 
most  abhorrent  features,  though  progress  was  far 
from  being  steady  and  continuous.  There  were 
dreadful  exceptions,  such  as  the  campaign  in  the 
Palatinate  and  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  when  cities 
were  sacked  and  country  sides  ravaged;  but  yet  the 
limits  beyond  which  men  should  not  go  were  being 
more  definitely  recognized. 

The  ending  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  with  Its  In- 
credible tale  of  barbarity,  ushered  In  a  milder  era. 
Grotius  was  witness  of  its  horrors,  and  was  perhaps 


THE  SOCIETY  OF  NATIONS  317 

mov^ed  by  them  to  try  to  formulate  a  system  of  inter- 
national law.  His  words,  written  in  1625,  have 
often  been  quoted,  but  may  be  quoted  again  in  view 
of  recent  events : 

"  I  saw  prevailing  through  the  Christian  world  a  license 
in  making  war  of  which  even  barbarous  nations  would  have 
been  ashamed ;  recourse  being  had  to  arms  for  slight  reasons 
and  even  for  no  reasons ;  and  when  arms  were  once  taken  up, 
all  reverence  for  human  and  divine  law  was  thrown  away, 
just  as  if  men  were  henceforth  authorized  to  commit  all  crimes 
without  restraint." 

The  immensity  of  the  evil  drove  him  and  others, 
such  as  Francisco  Suarez,  to  seek  its  remedy  in  an 
association  of  States,  whose  relations  would  be  regu- 
lated on  well-defined  principles.  In  his  doctrine  of 
the  Society  of  Nations,  the  basic  principle  of  which  is 
that  all  its  members,  whatever  their  disparity  of 
strength,  are  on  equal  terms  as  regards  their  rights, 
he  broke  away  from  the  doctrine  of  Machiavelli  that 
JMight  is  Right;  that  no  one  nation  is  answerable  to 
another;  that  each  State  is  the  sole  judge  of  its  neces- 
sity', and  is,  therefore,  free  to  frame  its  policy  for  its 
own  selfish  advantage.  It  is  curious  to  see  the  con- 
troversy, settled  two  and  a  half  centuries  ago,  now 
reopened  by  the  Kaiser,  who  in  this,  as  in  some  other 
respects,  might  appear  to  be  the  natural  descendant 
of  the  Machiavellian  Prince. 

If  Grotius  failed  to  establish  his  doctrine  in  its 
present  completeness,  he  and  those  who  followed  him 
did  at  least  awaken  new  ideas  of  international  comity, 
from  which  in  time  came  new  ideas  of  international 
morality.  International  law  can  never  attain  the 
rigidity  of  State  law  for  the  reason  that  there  is  no 
supreme  authority  to  enforce  it,  no  final  sanction  for 
its  decrees;  but  the  underlying  idea  of  the  Society 
of  Nations  was  itself  an  enormous  advance.  .  Man- 


3i8        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

kind  became  more  sensitive.  Distinctions  were 
drawn  between  what  was  legitimate  and  what  was 
illegitimate  in  war.  Pillage,  the  massacre  of  non- 
combatants,  needless  destruction  of  property,  inhu- 
man neglect  of  wounded  and  treatment  of  prisoners 
were  reprobated  by  the  unfolding  instinct  of  human- 

The  change  was  slow  and  it  was  not  progressive. 
Hard  things  were  done,  there  were  lapses  into  abso- 
lute brutality;  but,  speaking  broadly,  with  the  close 
of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  came  the  end  of  the  old  era 
of  warfare  with  its  unrestrained  ferocity.  The  cam- 
paigns of  William  III  and  Marlborough  show  a  wide 
departure  from  the  methods  of  Wallenstein  and  Tilly 
sixty  years  before.  The  devastation  of  ruthless  war- 
riors, such  as  Frederick  and  Napoleon,  was  rather  the 
inevitable  accompaniment  of  long  wars  than  the 
premeditated  result  of  barbarity;  yet  Frederick  en- 
joined on  his  armies  that  they  must  not  ill-treat,  rav- 
age or  destroy  civil  populations;  that  non-combatants 
must  be  treated  with  consideration  and  humanity; 
while  Napoleon  avoided  the  destruction  of  cities. 
In  a  more  enlightened  day,  the  Kaiser,  under  the  re- 
proach of  mankind,  has  rejected  the  precedents  set  by 
his  own  great  ancestor  and  exemplar. 

While  the  practices  of  war  slowly  became  more 
lenient,  a  defined  code  of  warfare  still  more  slowly 
developed.  Great  jurists  ventilated  doctrines  which 
were  often  in  conflict,  but  all,  in  one  way  or  another, 
pushed  the  claims  of  morality  a  little  further  for- 
ward. Von  Bynkershoek,  though  he  attempted  to 
soften  the  austerity  of  war  but  little,  asserted  a  great 
principle  when  he  proclaimed  the  inviolability  of  neu- 
tral territory.  Vattel,  again,  showed  how  barbarous 
war  still  was  in  his  time  by  dwelling  on  the  iniquity  of 
the  use  of  poison;  but  he  also  proved  the  progress  of 


PARIS  AND  GENEVA  319 

the  moral  sense  when  he  emphasised  the  necessity  of 
justice  as  a  cause  of  war,  and  declared  war  to  be  only 
justifiable  when  waged  in  defence  against  wrong. 
Zouche,  though  he  maintained  that  an  abnormal  in- 
crease of  armaments  by  a  neighbouring  State  would 
constitute  a  casus  belli,  was  equally  positive  on  the 
necessity  of  a  war  being  "rightful";  and  declared 
that  there  should  only  be  resort  to  it  after  all  other 
means  of  settlement  had  failed.  Leibnitz,  Puffen- 
dorf  and  Stowell  laid  down  theoretical  principles  for 
a  code  of  War  Law,  while  statesmen  and  generals  in 
varying  degree  gave  them  practical  application;  but  it 
was  not  until  1856  that  the  idea  of  an  international 
code  took  definite  shape.  The  Declaration  of  Paris 
dealt  with  the  rights  of  neutral  ships  in  war;  assert- 
ing the  great  principles  that  the  neutral  flag  covers 
enemy's  goods,  except  such  as  are  contraband  of  war; 
and  that  neutral  goods,  always  excepting  contraband 
of  war,  are  not  liable  to  capture  under  the  enemy  flag. 
The  long  period  of  comparative  peace  following 
the  Napoleonic  wars  gave  free  play  to  the  better  feel- 
ings of  mankind,  which  found  notable  expression  in 
the  suppression  of  slavery.  In  1864  the  Geneva 
Convention  made  rules  for  the  treatment  of  sick  and 
wounded,  under  which  persons  and  things  connected 
with  their  care  were  exempt  from  hostile  operations. 
In  1868  the  Declaration  of  St.  Petersburg  established 
certain  general  principles  of  warfare,  the  chief  being 
that  the  only  legitimate  object  of  military  operations 
was  to  weaken  the  force  of  the  enemy,  with  the  mini- 
mum of  suffering  to  the  civil  population.  Six  years 
later  the  laws  of  war  generally  were  discussed  at  great 
length  at  Brussels.  The  rules  there  formulated  were 
not  ratified  by  the  Powers;  but  the  agreed  principles 
formed  the  groundwork  of  the  subsequent  negotia- 
tions at  The  Hague  in  1899  and  1907. 


320        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Although  the  Brussels  Conference  had  no  legisla- 
tive results,  it  was  of  importance  as  being  the  reflec- 
tion of  a  higher  code  of  morality,  which  indeed  had 
already  found  expression  in  actual  warfare.  The 
campaign  of  Napoleon  III  in  Italy,  and  the  Franco- 
German  War  of  1870,  while  carried  on  untrammelled 
by  formal  regulations,  marked  on  the  whole  an  ad- 
vance on  many  previous  wars  in  the  observance  of  hu- 
mane rules;  although,  in  the  latter  conflict,  the  Prus- 
sians were  guilty  of  many  hideous  offences  against 
humanity  and  justice.  The  American  Civil  War 
had  been  regulated  by  a  code  called  "  Instructions  for 
the  Government  of  Armies  of  the  United  States  in 
the  Field,"  which  certainly  influenced  the  conduct  of 
the  Franco-Prussian  conflict.  It  consisted  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty-seven  Articles,  and  was  admirable 
alike  in  its  humanity  and  completeness,  taking  from 
that  terrible  struggle  many  of  war's  worst  features. 
It  seemed  that  of  its  own  determined  desire  mankind 
was  moving  to  a  higher  moral  plane.  The  attempted 
legislation  of  1874  and  the  actual  legislation  of  1899 
and  1907  were  then,  as  the  law-making  of  primitive 
States  had  been,  at  once  the  outcome  of  experience 
and  a  growing  moral  responsibility. 

The  last  two  great  wars  of  our  time  were  striking 
instances  of  this  advance.  Both  the  South  African 
War  and  the  war  between  Russia  and  Japan  were 
waged  on  what  may  be  called  the  modern  principle. 
There  have  indeed  been  military  critics  who  held  that 
the  South  African  methods  would  have  caused  less 
suffering  had  they  been  less  humane.  One  thing  is 
certain:  never  have  the  inhabitants  of  an  invaded 
country  suffered  less  from  plunder  or  outrage  than 
did  the  Boers. 

Then  came  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  waged  be- 
tween two  nations  whom  the  Germans  have  described 


RUSSO-JAPANESE  CHIVALRY  321 

as  barbarous.  The  fighting  in  that  campaign  was  of 
prodigious  fury;  the  loss  of  hfe  was  very  great;  the 
struggle  assumed  a  most  violent  form;  but  new  rules 
of  warfare  were  rigidly  observed  by  both  sides.  Sir 
Ian  Hamilton  bears  evidence  to  this  admirable  be- 
haviour. When  he  congratulated  the  Japanese  of- 
ficers on  the  conduct  of  their  men,  they  replied,  "  We 
cannot  afford  to  have  any  people  connected  with  this 
army  plundering  or  ill-treating  the  inhabitants  of  the 
country  we  traverse."  ^  So  scrupulous  were  the 
Japanese  on  this  point  that  they  actually  sacrificed  ef- 
ficiency to  secure  it.  In  their  war  with  China  they 
had  found  that  the  rickshaw  coolies  whom  they  em- 
ployed, though  excellent  for  transport  purposes,  had 
lowered  the  national  reputation  by  acts  of  violence 
and  pillage.  Accordingly  they  decided  to  conscribe 
200,000  men  annually,  not  to  be  called  up  for  mili- 
tary service,  but  who  should  act  as  coolies  in  time  of 
war.  It  was  calculated  that  these  were  only  half  as 
efficient  as  professional  coolies,  but  Japan  made  the 
sacrifice  in  the  interest  of  her  own  national  reputa- 
tion. 

Of  the  Russians  Sir  Ian  Hamilton  writes:  "  The 
Muscovites  have  not  lifted  so  much  as  an  egg  even 
during  the  demoralization  of  a  defeat."  ^  Contrast 
the  conduct  of  these  two  nations  with  what  has  hap- 
pened during  the  months  of  1914  and  1915,  and  we 
shall  be  able  to  measure  the  ruin  of  hopes  and  ideals 
for  which  this  war  is  responsible.  In  those  early 
days  of  August,  19 14,  when  Europe  was  roused  from 
its  dreams  of  peace  to  face  the  new  cataclysm,  men 
consoled  themselves  as  best  they  could  by  the  re- 
flection that  the  worst  features  of  war  were  gone  for 
ever.     An  authority  on  international  law,  writing  of 

1  Sir  Ian  Hamilton,  A  Staff  Officer's  Scrap  Book,  Vol.  I,  p.  244. 
^Ibid.,  p.  215. 


322        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

The   Hague   Conference,   had   used   these   soothing 
words :      "  Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  war  on 
land  is  carried  on  now  with  far  greater  humanity  than 
it  was  a  century  ago."  ^ 
\  He  had  not  said  this  without  reason.     The  na- 

\^  tions  involved  in  the  struggle  had  subscribed  to  a 
code  the  more  likely  to  be  observed  because  It  was 
not  based  on  sentimentallsm.  Beyond  proscribing 
certain  practices,  such  as  murder,  poison,  and  expand- 
ing bullets,  it  left  commanders  free  to  use  all  means  of 
achieving  the  purpose  of  war;  but  It  prohibited  every 
act  of  violence  and  destruction  which  was  not  de- 
manded by  the  strict  purpose  of  war.  It  was  par- 
ticular In  protecting  non-combatants,  in  asserting  the 
sanctity  of  private  property;  and  It  elevated  Into  law 
certain  customs  hitherto  resting  on  an  unwritten  tradl^ 
tlon  of  honour."*  There  were  humanitarians  who 
would  have  restricted  still  further  the  freedom  of 
commanders;  but  most  practical  men  saw  In  the  very 
latitude  of  the  code  the  best  security  for  its  observ- 
ance. To  prescribe  too  many  limitations  might  In- 
vite evasions. 

Those  who  expected  that  the  great  war  of  19 14 
would  be  waged  on  new  principles  of  international 
morality  and  law  could  point,  in  support  of  their 
faith,  to  a  document  published  so  far  back  as  1902  by 
the  German  General  Staff,  under  the  title  of  Kriegs- 
brauch.  There  is  no  namby-pamby  sentiment  in  this 
statement  of  the  rights  of  war  and  Its  practices. 
War  must  be  made  not  only  on  the  combatant  forces 
of  the  enemy  State  and  Its  fortresses,  but  "  equally 
strong  endeavours  must  be  made  to  destroy  it  entire 
intellectual  and  material  resources."     The  claims  of 

3  T.  J.  Lawrence,  International  Problems  and  Hague  Conference, 
p.  104. 

4  For  chief  provisions  of  The  Hague  Convention,  see  Appendix  II. 


GERMAN  LAWS  OF  WAR  323 

humanity,  the  sparing  of  human  lives  and  property, 
were  to  be  considered  only  in  so  far  as  the  nature  of 
war  permitted.  This  was  sufficiently  ruthless;  but 
even  the  authors  of  that  merciless  programme  recog- 
nized limitations  of  warlilce  methods,  influenced  not 
merely  by  selfish  considerations  of  reprisals,  but  by 
*'  the  spirit  of  chivalry,  of  Christian  morality  and 
the  advance  of  culture."  The  modern  customs  of 
war,  as  this  document  affirms,  are  not  merely  founded 
upon  old  traditions  and  ancient  military  customs,  but 
are  "  the  precipitate  of  the  currents  of  modern 
thought." 

This  was  all  very  consoling.  Here  were  men  of 
blood  and  iron  admitting  the  influence  of  chivalry, 
culture  and  Christian  morality;  and  asserting  that  the 
customs  of  modern  war  reflect  modern  thought. 
The  Second  Hague  Conference  carried  the  results  of 
modern  thought  a  little  further,  and  Germany  sub- 
scribed to  its  conclusions.  We  were,  therefore,  en- 
titled to  look  for  something  of  a  moral  lesson  in  the 
conduct  of  this  war. 

So  great,  indeed,  was  the  i:efinement  of  the  con- 
flict to  be,  that  we  find  the  German  General  Staff  dep- 
recating the  employment  of  non-European  troops, 
whom  they  regarded  as  uncivilized  and  barbarian. 
The  objection  is  stated  in  a  fine  passage: 

"  With  the  modern  tendency  to  humanize  warfare  and 
to  diminish  the  sufferings  caused  by  war,  the  employment  of 
soldiers  who  lack  the  knowledge  of  civilized  warfare,  and  who 
consequently  perpetrate  cruelties  and  inhumanities  prohibited 
by  the  customs  of  war  cannot  be  reconciled." 

What  then  are  these  customs  of  war  which  a  bar- 
barous and  uncivilized  soldiery  might  disregard,  but 
which  would  be  respected  by  even  the  most  ruthless 
commander  of  white  men? 


324        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Dealing  with  sieges  and  bombardments,  it  Is  laid 
down  by  the  German  General  Staff  In  the  Kriegs- 
hrauch  that  the  prohibition  against  shelling  open 
towns  and  villages  neither  occupied  nor  defended 
by  the  enemy  Is,  "  Almost  superfluous,  as  the  modern 
history  of  war  scarcely  knows  a  case  in  which  such 
shelling  has  taken  place." 

Memories  of  Whitby  and  Scarborough  will  vividly 
intrude  themselves  here. 

Ruses  of  War. — 

Although  In  all  times  tricks  and  ruses  have  been 
considered  lawful.  It  Is  explained  that  — 

"  Certain  ruses  are  not  reconcilable  with  honest  warfare, 
namely,  those  which  degenerate  into  perfidy,  fraud,  and  the 
breach  of  the  given  word." 

In  this  category  are  placed  the  abuse  of  the  white 
flag  or  the  Red  Cross  and  pretended  surrender  with 
the  object  of  killing  an  unsuspecting  opponent  on  his 
approach.  Such  offences  are  denounced  in  terms 
which  deserve  to  be  remembered  — 

"  These  crimes  violate  the  most  ancient  principles  of  war. 
The  natural  sense  of  right  possessed  by  all  men,  and  the  spirit 
of  chivalry  which  lives  in  the  armies  of  all  civilized  States 
have  branded  such  proceedings  as  crimes  against  humanity  and 
against  Right,  and,  guided  by  these  sentiments,  one  refuses  to 
recognize  any  longer  as  equals,  opponents  who  thus  openly 
violate  the  laws  of  honour  and  justice." 

It  is  also  laid  down  that,  In  the  opinion  of  mili- 
tary writers,  supported  by  The  Hague  Conference, 
the  use  of  the  enemy's  uniform  and  flags,  or  of  neu- 
tral flags,  In  order  to  deceive,  is  placed  In  the  same 
category  as  the  abuse  of  the  white  flag  and  the  Red 
Cross.  Yet  these  pious  affirmations  have  been  re- 
pudiated in  practice  innumerable  times  during  this 
war  by  the  German  army. 


RIGHTS  OF  CIVILIANS  325 

Customs  of  JFar  relating  to  the  enemy's  country. 
Rights  and  duties  of  inhabitants. — 

On  this  point  the  Kriegsbraiich  is  so  admirable 
In  Its  statement  of  international  morality  that  it  must 
be  quoted  at  length: 

"  While  formerly  the  opinion  prevailed  that  the  destruc- 
tion of  private  property  was  '  the  principal  means  of  warfare,' 
and  that  the  right  to  plunder  private  property  was  unhmited, 
to-day  the  opinion  prevails  universally  that  the  inhabitants 
of  a  hostile  country  are  no  longer  to  be  considered  as  enemies. 
...  It  follows  that  the  citizens  of  an  unoccupied  country 
possess  the  right,  that  neither  their  life  may  be  taken  nor  that 
their  honour  and  liberty  be  diminished,  that  every  case  of  un- 
lawful killing  of  the  civil  population,  that  every  malicious  or 
careless  wounding,  that  every  insult,  every  disturbance  of  the 
domestic  peace,  everj'  attack  upon  the  family,  upon  honour, 
and  upon  morality,  in  short,  every  unlawful  or  criminal  attack 
and  insult  is  exactly  as  punishable  as  if  it  had  been  perpe- 
trated against  the  inhabitants  of  one's  own  countr}^" 

Here  we  pause  to  think  of  Vise,  Louvain,  Ter- 
monde,  and  Mallnes;  of  Aerschot,  Dlnant  and 
Senlls ! 

In  regard  to  private  property  the  Kriegsbraiich  Is 
quite  definite.  As  war  Is  made  between  States  and 
not  between  private  individuals,  It  follow^s  that  arbi- 
trary devastation  of  the  country  and  wilful  destruc- 
tion of  private  property  is  opposed  to  International 
law.  Soldiers  guilty  of  unnecessary  devastation,  de- 
struction and  arson  "  will  be  punished  as  criminals 
according  to  law."  Then  follows  this  declaration  In 
all  the  emphasis  of  Italics. 

"  No  damage,  not  even  the  smallest,  must  be  done  unless 
it  is  done  for  inilitary  reasons.  On  the  other  hand,  the  great' 
est  damage  may  be  inflicted  if  it  is  demanded  by  the  conduct 
of  war." 

How  many  towns  and  villages  In  France  and  Bel- 


326        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

gium  have  been  laid  waste  for  no  reason  at  all  save 
to  feed  a  spirit  of  revenge  and  hatred,  to  impose 
the  policy  of  terrorism,  to  paralyse  the  material  and 
intellectual  resources  of  the  people  1 

Plunder  and  loot. — 

Observe  the  good  doctrine  of  the  German  Gen- 
eral Staff  on  this  ancient  offence  of  war: 

"  Plunder  is  the  worst  form  of  taking  other  people's  prop- 
erty. It  consists  in  robbing  the  citizens  of  the  country  by 
making  use  of  the  terror  of  war,  in  abusing  the  superior  force 
possessed  by  the  military." 

This  is  a  most  important  statement.  The  taking 
of  all  private  property  is  criminal,  but  the  addition 
of  terror  makes  it  atrocious.  Such  a  denunciation 
of  terrorism,  or  frightfulness,  must  not  be  forgotten 
as  we  proceed  to  consider  what  has  happened  in  Bel- 
gium and  Northern  France. 

Forced  Requisitions  and  Contributions. — 

"  As  modern  International  Law  no  longer  recognizes  the 
right  to  destroy  and  plunder,  and  as  the  maxim  that  wars  are 
made  upon  States,  and  not  upon  private  individuals  is  no 
longer  in  doubt,  it  follows  logically  that  forced  contributions 
in  money  are  not  permissible  according  to  present-day  views, 
because  such  contributions  represent  only  an  ordinary  enrich- 
ment of  the  victor." 

Here  we  have  an  exposition  of  the  principles  on 
which  nations  should  fight,  elevating  warfare  to  a 
comparatively  high  moral  plane.  It  Is  not  perfect; 
the  doctrine  of  the  destruction  of  a  nation's  entire 
resources,  not  only  material  but  intellectual,  shocks 
civilized  ideals;  but  the  denunciation  of  dishonest 
ruses;  the  emphatic  assertion  of  the  inviolability  of 
the  persons  and  property  of  private  individuals;  the 
condemnation  of  the  principles  of  ransom;  the  lofty 


A  HIGH  MORAL  PLANE  327 

appeals  to  chivalry,  Christianity  and  honour  —  these 
indicate  a  very  notable  advance  in  civilization. 

Truly,  thought  those  who  read,  we  were  coming 
to  a  golden  military  age,  when  war  would  be  con- 
ducted in  a  kind  of  vacuum,  injuring  only  those  en- 
gaged in  it  and  passing  non-combatants  by.  These 
hopeful  expectations  were  confounded  when  Ger- 
many violated  the  neutrality  of  Luxemburg  and  Bel- 
gium; for  that  neutrality  was  not  only  guaranteed  by 
solemn  treaty  upheld  over  three-quarters  of  a  cen- 
tury, but  was  sanctified  by  The  Hague  Conference 
and  by  the  German  General  Staff  itself.  Thoughtful 
men,  when  they  saw  these  articles  of  international  law 
disregarded,  may  have  had  some  qualms  of  doubt 
whether  the  others  would  be  observed;  If  so  they 
were  lulled  into  tranquillity  by  the  conviction  that 
though  Germany  might  disregard  a  political  obliga- 
tion, she  would  certainly  not  disregard  obligations 
of  chivalry,  honour,  and  Christian  morality. 

They  saw  in  the  Kriegsbrauch  commendable  op- 
position of  new  principles  of  morality  to  old  bar- 
barous practices;  and  they  fondly  imagined  that  hu- 
manity had  really  weighted  the  balance  in  its  own 
favour.  They  were  mistaken.  They  had  read  only 
the  lofty  sentiments  and  well-posed  regulations;  they 
had  ignored  the  exceptions  and  the  qualifications. 
In  that  admirable  work.  The  German  ff^ar-Book,^ 
Professor  Morgan  has  shown  the  distinction  made 
by  the  German  War  Lords  between  Kriegsmanier,  or 
the  rules  of  war,  and  Kricgsraison,  or  the  argument 
of  necessity  of  war;  and  how  the  former  is  invaria- 
bly subordinated  to  the  latter.  "  It  is,"  he  says, 
"  unfortunate  that  the  War-Book,  when  it  inculcates 

'''Those  who  desire  to  study  the  German  conception  of  warfare  in 
detail  will  find  in  this  work  a  very  complete  statement  of  the  sub- 
ject. 


328        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

'  frightfulness,'  Is  never  obscure,  and  when  It  ad- 
vises forbearance  It  Is  always  ambiguous." 

In  effect,  the  German  rules  of  war  are  not  really 
framed  In  mitigation  of  old  bad  usages;  they  are 
everywhere  whittled  down  In  deference  to  them. 
The  Ten  Commandments  are  hung  on  the  wall,  and 
then  are  blue-pencilled  till  "  Thou  shalt  not "  Is  ob- 
scured by  "  Thou  mayst."  In  brief,  the  German 
fFar-Book,  If  the  exceptions  be  taken  with  the  rules, 
Is  an  actual  repudiation  of  the  modern  practice  of 
war  as  declared  by  The  Hague  Convention.  The 
latter  seeks  by  rules  to  put  restraints  on  the  doctrine 
of  destruction;  In  the  War-Book  this  doctrine  modi- 
fies, distorts,  governs,  or  obscures  the  rules.  So 
flagrant.  Indeed,  Is  the  antagonism  In  spirit  between 
the  two,  that  It  Is  certain  the  authors  of  the  Kriegs- 
hrauch  had  no  other  object  than  to  throw  dust  In  the 
eyes  of  the  world,  to  make  mock  of  humanity.  The 
German  General  Staff  had  its  tongue  In  Its  cheek 
when  this  War-Book  was  compiled. 

What  we  have  seen  in  actual  practice  since  Au- 
gust, 19 14,  Is  no  less  than  the  betrayal  of  civihzation 
by  the  very  nation  which,  like  one  who  went  out 
and  hanged  himself,  was  most  correct  In  its  pro- 
fessions of  loyalty  to  culture  and  morality.  It  has 
been  a  terrible  blow  to  the  whole  world  to  find  how 
little,  after  all,  has  been  the  ethical  progress  of  Ger- 
many, how  thin  its  veneer  of  refinement  and  human- 
ity. 

However,  now  that  the  first  shock  has  passed,  re- 
flection will  serve  to  show  that  humanity  need  not  be 
hopeless,  face  to  face  with  this  revolting  history. 
The  very  horror  which  the  deeds  done  in  Flanders, 
In  France  and  In  Poland,  have  aroused  everywhere, 
prove  that  the  moral  progress  of  the  world  of  men 
as  a  whole  is  a  real  thing;  that  It  Is  only  one  tribe  of 


DISILLUSIONMENT  329 

the  vast  human  family  which  has  failed  and  fallen 
short.  The  conduct  of  the  war  by  Germany,  her 
repudiation  of  the  principles  which  she  herself  pro- 
fessed, has  lowered  the  moral  level  as  a  whole;  but 
it  has  at  least  shown  us  exactly  where  the  foundations 
are  rotten. 

There  had  been  warnings  by  those  who  knew,  who 
declared  from  inside  knowledge  that  the  German 
people,  like  the  parvenus  of  romance,  had  lost  their 
heads.  When  a  German  officer  butchered  a  peace- 
ful unarmed  citizen,  or  a  sergeant  tortured  and  mal- 
treated his  men,  or  someone  who  knew  published 
revelations  of  life  in  a  garrison  town;  or  when  an 
enterprising  journalist  unearthed  the  loathsome  do- 
ings of  a  camarilla,  people  shook  their  heads,  but 
dismissed  the  matter,  with  the  remark  that  militarism 
was  being  pushed  too  far;  that  there  was,  unhappily, 
still  a  certain  crudeness,  coarseness  and  cruelty  in  the 
German  character.  With  thought  of  the  Heinrichs 
and  the  Gretchens  of  such  German  literature  as  they 
knew,  they  were  glad  to  believe  still  that  the  nation 
was  sound  at  heart.  Even  a  most  distinguished 
Englishman,  a  deep  student  of  Germany,  found  there 
his  "  intellectual  home."  If,  with  his  reading,  he 
failed  to  appreciate  the  real  trend  of  German  char- 
acter and  feeling,  it  is  not  surprising  that  less  fa- 
voured and  less  instructed  people  were  ignorant  of 
what  was  forward. 

Germany  alone  has  not  marched  with  the  rest  of 
humanit)',  save  in  material  development,  in  the  prog- 
ress of  commerce  and  industry,  in  the  getting  of 
wealth.  While  most  of  the  world  has  been  seeking 
higher  inspiration,  becoming  slowly  subject  to  prin- 
ciples which  work  towards  the  adjustment  of  all  dis- 
organization of  world-life  by  equity  and  right-think- 
ing, by  mutual  moral  accommodation,  she  has  wor- 


330        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

shipped  false  gods.  "  In  the  struggle  between  na- 
tionalities," cries  Prince  Biilow,  "  one  nation  is  the 
hammer  and  the  other  the  anvil." 

Germans  call  the  God  they  worship  their  "  old 
God,"  but  in  vain  the  studious  mind  seeks  this  Ger- 
man Deity  in  the  story  of  civilization.  True  it  is, 
however,  that  in  the  operas  of  Wagner  he  may  be 
found.  There  he  is  in  the  subterranean  realms 
where  Wotan  reigned.  A  German  poet  has  sung  of 
him  in  wild  ecstasy: 

"  The  God  who  speaks  out  of  our  cannons,  the  God  who 
breaks  up  your  fortresses,  who  rushes  through  the  seas  on  our 
ships,  who  whizzes  across  the  heavens  with  our  flying-men, 
the  God  of  our  swords  before  which  you  tremble,  is  the  same 
Almighty  Spirit  that  has  moved  over  Germany  for  thousands 
of  years.  He  was  Wotan,  the  cloud-wanderer  of  our  fathers ; 
it  was  he  who  suffered  with  us,  but  who  remained  alive  in 
Paul  Gerhardt  and  John  Sebastian  Bach,  the  God  who  lay 
beside  Frederick  in  the  field,  and  finally  gave  us  a  new  day."  ® 

Too  long  have  this  German  race  misinterpreted 
the  Deity  for  their  purposes  of  conquest;  too  long 
have  they  drawn  inspiration  from  Askalon,  forget- 
ting or  scorning  Olivet.  Tacitus,  no  unfriendly  critic, 
says  of  the  Germans  of  his  day,  "  To  solicit  by 
labour  what  might  be  seized  by  arms  was  esteemed 
unworthy  of  the  German  spirit." 

The  German  race  has  always  been  pre-eminent  for 
barbarity  in  war.  Germany's  conquests  have  largely 
been  barren  because  of  the  brutality  of  her  methods. 
Her  idea  of  making  Italy  a  province  of  the  Empire 
was  to  devastate  it;  the  Thirty  Years'  War  was  per- 
haps the  most  horrible  in  its  excesses  of  all  that  have 
stained  the  face  of  Europe  since  the  time  of  Attila.'^ 

^  KolTiiscJie  Zeitung,  December,  1914. 

■^  John  Ruskin  bore  indignant  testimony  to  German  violence. 
Thus,  in  Fors  Clavigera,  he  says:  "Accordingly,  when  the  Germans 


PRUSSIA'S  ILL  RECORD  331 

We  need  only  compare  it  with  the  contemporary 
great  Civil  War  in  England  to  realize  what  were  the 
excesses  of  the  old  Teutons.  During  the  campaigns 
in  France,  in  18 14  and  18 15,  the  atrocities  of  the 
Prussian  troops  shocked  their  allies,  who  were  not 
squeamish  or  over-sensitive.  At  Chateau  Thierry, 
in  1 8 14,  the  Prussians  "committed  every  sort  of 
cruelty."  ^  When  General  Belliaud,  of  the  French 
Army,  entered  the  town,  he  found  the  women  killing 
the  wounded  Prussians,  and  was  told  that  it  was  an 
act  of  vengeance  for  wholesale  plunder,  outrage  on 
women  of  all  ages,  and  cold-blooded  murder.  Cap- 
tain Gronow,  describing  what  happened  in  the  ad- 
vance to  Paris  after  Waterloo,  says:  "Whenever 
we  arrived  at  towns  or  villages  through  which  the 
Prussians  had  passed  we  found  that  every  article 
of  furniture  in  the  houses  had  been  destroyed  in  the 
most  wanton  fashion";  and  he  describes  how,  on 
the  slightest  remonstrance,  the  poor  people  were 
"  beaten  in  a  most  shameful  manner  and  sometimes 
shot."  This  officer  found  a  farmer  at  Pont  St. 
Malxan,  whose  three  daughters  had  been  violated, 
whose  cattle  and  horses  had  been  stolen,  and  who  had 
himself  been  tied  to  a  chair  and  slashed  with  swords 
because  he  had  no  money.  One  greater  than  Gro- 
now bore  similar  witness.  Robert  Southey  thus  de- 
scribes a  visit  to  Belgium  in  the  autumn  of  1815  : 

"  You  will  be  rejoiced  to  hear  that  the  English  are  well 
spoken  of  for  their  deportment  in  peace  and  war.     It  is  far 

get  command  of  Lombarcly,  they  bombard  Venice,  steal  her  pictures 
(which  they  can't  understand  a  single  touch  of),  and  entirely  ruin 
tlie  country,  morally  and  physically,  leaving  behind  them  misery, 
vice,  and  intense  hatred  of  tiiemselves,  wherever  their  accursed 
feet  have  trodden.  They  do  precisely  the  same  thing  by  France  — 
crush  her,  rob  her,  leave  her  in  misery  of  rage  and  shame,  and  re- 
turn home,  smacking  their  lips,  and  singing  Te  Deums." 
»  Captain  Gronow's  Reminiscences. 


332        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

otherwise  with  the  Prussians.  Concerning  them  there  is  but 
one  opinion ;  of  their  brutality  and  intolerable  insolence  I  have 
had  but  too  many  proofs."  ^ 

In  Paris  the  ruffianism  of  the  Prussians  revoltea 
the  Allies.  Blucher  was  with  difficulty  restrained 
by  the  Duke  of  Wellington  from  plundering  the 
Bank  of  France.  General  Muffling  put  an  impossi- 
ble contribution  on  the  city  and  arrested  the  Prefect 
because  It  could  not  be  pald.^'^  British  objection  to 
such  treatment  of  a  conquered  country  caused  dif- 
ferences which  were  not  easily  overcome. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  had  no  Illusion  as  to  the 
character  of  his  Allies.  Though  he  earned  the  title 
of  the  "  Iron  Duke,"  he  was  always  scrupulous  to 
respect  the  rights  of  non-combatants,  as  the  bad  men 
of  his  armies  learned  to  their  cost;  and  the  disregard 
of  these  rights  by  the  Germans  revolted  him.  Writ- 
ing to  his  mother,  he  thus  described  the  operations 
of  the  German  legion: 

"  I  can  assure  you  that  from  the  General  of  the  Germans 
down  to  the  smallest  drummer-boy  in  their  legion  the  earth 
never  groaned  with  such  a  lot  of  murdering  infamous  villains. 
They  murdered,  robbed,  and  ill-treated  the  peasantry  wher- 
ever they  went," 

The  Iron  Duke  did  not  speak  more  strongly  than 
he  felt.  He  was  unrelentingly  stern  with  his  own 
armies,  punishing  Ill-treatment  of  non-combatants 
with  the  utmost  severity.  Sir  Herbert  Maxwell,  In 
his  life  of  the  great  commander,  says : 

"  Plundering  of  peaceful  inhabitants  was  the  one  crime  he 
detested  and  was  determined  to  put  down." 

In  the  Danish  War  of  1864  the  German  army  de- 

^  Robert  Southey,  Letter  to  John  May,  October  6th,  i8iv 
10  Captain  Gronow,  Reminiscences. 


DENMARK,  AUSTRIA,  FRANCE  333 

stroyed  public  works,  monuments  and  property  of  all 
kinds  without  scruple,  and  without  any  excuse  of 
military  advantage.  Thus,  they  bombarded  Sonde- 
burg,  a  town  situated  on  an  island  behind  the  Dan- 
ish forces,  which  was  quite  outside  the  area  of  mili- 
tary operations,  the  only  result  of  the  bombardment 
being  the  removal  of  the  Danish  hospitals.  When 
their  excesses  In  the  Franco-German  War  of  1870 
formed  the  subject  of  general  discussion,  the  Aus- 
trian papers  declared  that,  short  as  had  been  the 
campaign  of  1866,  the  German  armies  had  left  be- 
hind them  in  Austria  the  same  unsavoury  reputation 
as  in  Denmark.  This  is  peculiarly  instructive,  for 
Austria  had  borne  part  in  both  campaigns.  In  one  as 
the  ally.  In  the  other  as  the  opponent,  of  Prussia. 

In  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  there  was,  as  we 
have  It  now,  the  theory  of  collective  punishment,  the 
destruction  of  public  buildings,  and  the  same  callous 
disregard  of  the  wounded,  though  on  a  less  extensive 
scale.  The  shelling  of  the  inhabited  quarters  of 
Strassburg  before  even  a  shot  was  fired  against  the 
ramparts;  the  destruction  of  the  great  library  that 
lay  beside  the  historic  Cathedral;  and  the  deliberate 
bombardment  of  the  place,  to  prevent  the  work  of 
those  who  tried  to  save  it,  was  sternly  condemned 
in  England  and  America  as  were  the  indiscriminate 
murders  in  r-.venge  for  the  attacks  of  the  francs- 
tireurs  and  General  von  Goeben's  atrocious  Procla- 
mation at  Rouen,  where  those  who  acted  as  guides 
to  the  French  troops  were  threatened  with  death. ^^ 

The  conduct  of  the  German  armies  in  1870  is  par- 
ticularly instructive  in  examining  the  excuse  ad- 
vanced by  the  Germans  for  the  destruction  of  towns 
and  slaughter  of  civilians  In  Belgium.     Then,  as  now, 

^1  Laurence  Oliphant,  the  correspondent  of  the  London  Times  in 
this  war,  said  that  "  The  Germans  pillaged  terribly." 


334        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

the  argument  was  that  civilians  had  become  irregu- 
lar combatants.  We  need  not  here  argue  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  francs-tireiirs  were  not  as  much 
regular  soldiers  as  the  Landstrum  of  Germany. 
High  authorities  contend  that  they  were;  but  that 
point  may  pass  in  view  of  the  fact  that  towns  were 
destroyed  and  civilians  butchered  in  reprisal  for  the 
acts  of  regular  troops.  At  Nemours,  where  300 
gardes-mobiles  captured  47  Uhlans,  the  sentence  on 
the  town  was  that  it  should  be  pillaged  for  two  hours 
and  burned  to  the  ground.  When  a  bridge  over 
the  Meuse  was  destroyed  by  a  party  of  French  cav- 
alry, which  came  from  a  distance,  the  unoffending 
village  of  Fontenoi  near  by  was  ravaged  and  burnt  by 
the  Germans.  On  December  6th,  1870,  a  party  of 
Germans  came  to  Nogent-le-Roi  to  make  requisi- 
tions, and  was  driven  off  by  gai-des-mobiles.  They 
came  again,  with  7,000  men,  after  the  French  forces 
had  retired,  and  gallantly  bombarded  the  undefended 
town,  setting  it  on  fire  and  slaying  the  townsfolk  as 
they  escaped  from  their  burning  homes. 

Later  still,  in  the  Chinese  War  of  1900,  the  Ger- 
man troops  took  to  heart  the  injunctions  of  their 
Emperor  against  mercy.  General  James  H.  Wil- 
son, who  commanded  the  American  contingent,  has 
testified  that  "  The  atrocities  perpetrated  by  the  Ger- 
mans, especially  as  regards  women,  were  something 
too  atrocious  for  record;  and,  moreover,  were  un- 
blushingly  acknowledged  as  a  regular  feature  of 
war." 

Cruelty  is  one  of  the  methods  of  instruction  in  the 
German  army.  Soldiers  are  thrashed  by  their  ser- 
geants, horses  are  flogged  till  they  shriek  with  pain. 
Persuasion,  kindness,  humanity,  play  little  part  in 
educational  methods;  force  is  the  real  remedy,  the 
chief  agent.     The  design  is  to  harden  the  army; 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  SUPERMAN        335 

and  it  is  notably  achieved.  The  soldier  becomes  a 
superman,  taught  to  roll  his  eye  in  scorn  and  defiance, 
to  look  for  causes  of  offence  and  promptly  to  avenge 
them.  Brutality  becomes  part  of  his  regular  equip- 
ment. He  carries  it  in  his  haversack,  as  convenient 
for  his  sustenance  as  his  emergency  ration.  Thus, 
we  find  officers  performing  daring  feats  of  swords- 
manship upon  unarmed  merchants  and  even  cripples, 
and  the  heir  to  the  throne  complimenting  the  victors 
of  Zabern  on  their  loyalty  to  the  honour  of  the 
army. 

William  Harbutt  Dawson,  a  profound  student  of 
German  life  and  character,  in  his  latest  volume, ^^ 
describes  with  graphic  force  the  system  of  cruelty 
and  persecution  by  non-commissioned  officers  in  the 
German  army,  citing  speeches  made  in  debates  in 
the  Reichstag  on  Army  Estimates,  wherein  charges 
are  made  "  with  monotonous  regularity."  He 
quotes  striking  and  revolting  instances  such  as  that  of 
a  sergeant  named  Thamm,  who  was  charged  with 
600  cases  of  misconduct  and  maltreatment;  of  a  cap- 
tain, under  whom  a  non-commissioned  officer  had 
committed  1,500  offences  of  illtreatment  of  soldiers, 
being  given  promotion  over  the  heads  of  senior  offi- 
cers; and  he  recalls  the  statement  made  in  the  Reich- 
stag that  within  a  period  of  five  years,  "  One  hun- 
dred thousand  court-martialled  soldiers  had  been  sen- 
tenced to  an  aggregate  period  of  2,300  years  of 
penal  servitude  and  16,000  years  of  imprisonment." 
What  the  condition  of  an  army  must  be  which  has 
been  obliged  to  court-martial  100,000  soldiers  in 
five  years;  what  the  spirit  of  revolt  against  the  cruelty 
of  the  system  must  have  been  which  resulted  in  100,- 
000  soldiers  receiving  18,300  years  of  imprisonment 
and  penal  servitude  may  be  imagined.     How  slavish 

'^'^IVhat  is  IVrotig  iiit/i  Germany? 


336        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

must  the  spirit  of  a  people  be  which  could  permit  such 
a  system  to  continue ! 

"  Kicks,  cuffings,  pulling  of  ears  till  the  blood  came,  and 
lashings  with  driving  whips  were  among  the  ordinary  means 
employed  by  these  brutes  to  enforce  discipline,  and  '  waken 
up  '  backward  men." 

This  Is  the  description  of  the  ordinary  course  of 
discipline.  How  long  would  a  free  people  like  those 
of  England  and  America  endure  this  degradation  of 
humanity,  this  savage  application  of  physical  torture 
to  produce  an  efficient  machine  for  the  Imposition  of 
Kultur  and  the  saving  grace  of  the  German  ideal? 
These  things  are  done  in  the  twentieth  century  by 
the  military  section  of  a  people  who  have  that  peo- 
ple In  such  control  that  their  civilization  Is  resolved 
back  again  Into  barbarism  at  the  crack  of  the  Junker's 
whip  of  discipline.  A  nation  that  can  sing  a  Song 
of  Hate  like  a  troop  of  Sioux  Indians  on  the  war- 
path, as  though,  when  this  war  Is  over,  we  shall  not 
have  commerce  again  with  each  other,  or  resume  the 
ordinary  exchanges  and  civilities  of  existence,  shows 
a  primeval  simplicity  and  an  aboriginal  emotion 
which  is  as  discomfiting  to  the  intelligence  as  it  is 
futile  In  effect: 

..."  Come  hear  the  word,  repeat  the  word, 
Throughout  the  Fatherland  make  it  heard, 
We  will  never  forego  our  hate. 
We  have  all  but  a  single  hate, 
We  love  as  one,  we  hate  as  one, 
We  have  one  foe,  and  one  alone  — 
England!  " 

The  German  Dr.  Fuchs,  in  a  book  on  the  subject 
of  preparedness  for  war,  says: 

"  Therefore  the  German  claim  of  the  day  must  be:  The 
family  to  the  front.     The  State  has  to  follow  at  first  in  the 


THE  CREED  OF  HATE  337 

school,  then  in  foreign  politics.  Education  to  hate.  Educa- 
tion to  the  estimation  of  hatred.  Organization  of  hatred. 
Education  to  the  desire  of  hatred.  Let  us  abolish  unripe  and 
false  shame  before  brutality  and  fanaticism.  We  must  not 
hesitate  to  announce:  To  us  is  given  faith,  hope  and  hatred, 
but  hatred  is  the  greatest  among  them." 

It  is  all  childish,  ridiculous  and  disconcerting.  It 
is  a  nation  in  the  tantrums,  a  giant  crashing  about 
and  blaspheming  the  mockers  whom  he  cannot  reach 
or  destroy.  It  is  the  abdication  of  sane  manhood 
and  of  all  that  civilization  has  given  of  self-control. 
As  Goethe  said  to  Eckermann:  "Natural  hatred 
is  a  peculiar  thing.  You  will  find  it  most  intense 
among  the  lowest  in  the  scale  of  civilization."  Who 
cares  a  fig  or  a  farthing  for  these  rav^ings  ?  They 
do  not  frighten  us;  they  but  give  assurance  that  hate 
will  drive  these  tigers  rampant  to  do  foolish  things, 
by  which  they  will  play  into  our  hands,  as  they  have 
done  in  this  war  again  and  again.  They  kill  the 
wounded  and  fire  upon  Red  Cross  ambulances  and 
hospitals;  they  loot  and  murder  and  rape  and  rob, 
and  their  hate  has  thus  much  hideous  fruition;  but 
it  does  not  give  added  strength,  or  skill  or  wisdom 
to  their  fighting.  It  sends  General  von  Hindenburg 
headlong  at  the  crafty  Russians  in  a  fury  that  over- 
whelms the  makers  of  fury;  it  throws  scores  of  thou- 
sands on  impregnable  places  to  die;  it  burns  towns 
and  kills  women  and  children  and  old  men  in  baffled 
rage.  It  drives  Admiral  von  Tirpitz  to  proclaim 
paper-blockades  and  the  Intention  of  remorselessly 
destroying  Great  Britain's  mercantile  marine  with- 
out regard  for  the  lives  of  the  non-combatants  on  the 
ships  destroyed.  It  sends  a  whole  nation  plunging 
liindly  down  slopes  whose  depths  are  hidden,  in  the 
spirit  of  Cromwell's  words  to  the  Portuguese  Am- 
■Dassador:     "  No  one  goes  so  far  as  he  whg  knows 


338        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

not  where  he  is  going."     What  can  you  do  with  a 
people  whose  salutation  to  each  other  is  — ^ 

"God  punish  England,  brother!  — 
Yea,  punish  her,  O  Lord !  " 

They  say  it,  they  sing  it,  and  they  hiss  it.  They 
beat  a  poor  wounded  prisoner,  they  spit  upon  him, 
they  strike  him  in  the  face  with  bayonets,  they  kick 
him  when  he  asks  for  water,  they  surround  him  at  a 
railway-station  to  the  summons  of,  "  Come  and  see 
the  English  swine !  "  ^^  They  apparently  forget 
that  there  are  German  prisoners  in  England,  and 
that  it  is  possible  to  swarm  upon  wounded  German 
prisoners  at  English  railway-stations,  and  beat  them 
and  kick  them  and  say,  "  Come  and  see  the  German 
hogs."  Truth  is,  far  too  many  of  the  German  peo- 
ple are  still  in  many  essentials  where  they  were  when 
they  hunted  the  wild  boar  in  the  forests  of  Zollern, 
or  tracked  down  their  wild  brethren,  the  Slavs,  in 
the  barren  plains  of  East  Prussia,  "  with  a  single 
hate  "  and  "  one  foe  alone  "  ages  and  ages  ago. 

An  able  writer, ^^  who  knows  Germany  and  its  peo- 
ple, points  out  how  the  Kaiser  contributes  to  the  doc- 
trine of  force  by  his  constant  praise  of  the  duelling 
methods  of  the  German  students.  It  is  all  a  piece 
of  the  great  idea  —  contempt  for  weakness,  disre- 
gard of  the  rights  of  others,  the  principle  of  hacking 
one's  way  through.  The  German  cannot  under- 
stand that  other  men  have  any  rights,  any  point  of 
view,  any  virtue,  unless  they  jump  with  his  advan- 
tage. He  cannot  greatly  love  his  friends,  even  those 
like  the  Danes,  whom  he  wronged,  and  from  whom 

13  Corporal  C.  Welton  of  the  ist  Cheshire  Regiment,  in  an  inter- 
view in  the  London  Press  on  his  return  from  Germany  after  im- 
prisonment there. 

1*  Mr.  Sidney  Whitman,  Nineteenth  Century,  December,  1914. 


THE  DANISH  WAR  339 

he  took  by  force  territory  and  population;  or  the 
Austrlans,  whom  he  lures  to  be  his  servants  and 
treats  like  members  of  a  "  contemptible  little  army." 
All  others  he  hates,  or  hides  his  hate  seeking  to  se- 
duce. People  have  been  amazed  at  the  coarse  vitu- 
peration filling  the  German  papers  since  the  present 
war  began.  It  should  not  cause  surprise;  it  is  the 
Teutonic  custom.  Mr.  Gallenga,  a  one-time  lover  of 
Germany,  in  his  account  of  the  Danish  War  of  1864, 
uses  language  which  might  be  reprinted  to  describe 
the  events  of  to-day : 

"  It  is  strange  to  see  how  bitter,  how  violent  these  Germans 
can  be  when  they  have  managed  to  lash  themselves  into  a 
passion.  It  is  not  the  Government  of  Denmark  only  that  is 
the  theme  of  their  withering  abuse.  It  is  the  Danish  people 
that  they  paint  with  the  most  odious  colours  as  the  falsest,  the 
most  treacherous,  the  most  hypocritical  people  in  the  world. 
They  do  not  scruple  to  charge  their  adversaries  with  the 
blackest  perfidy  and  duplicity."  ^^ 

There  are,  doubtless,  very  many  kindly  Germans 
who  deplore  these  things,  but  they  are  silent  or  disre- 
garded. They  are  over-ruled  by  those  who  hold 
that  such  a  spirit  is  incompatible  with  national  great- 
ness. They  see  that  other  nations  have  become 
great  by  milder  methods,  but  their  arguments  are  ad- 
dressed to  rulers  devoid  of  political  capacity  and 

i^The  hostility  of  the  Germans  to  the  English  is  by  no  means  of 
recent  growth.  In  a  letter  from  France,  written  in  1870,  Laurence 
Oliphant  describes  their  animosity  thus:  "The  official  or  Junker 
class  detests  England  with  a  mortal  hatred,  because  they  in- 
stinctively feel  that  the  institutions  of  England  strike  at  the  root  of 
their  class  prejudices  and  bureaucratic  system.  The  feeling  against 
England  among  the  Germans  is  increasing  every  day,  and  it  is 
amusing  to  hear  them  discuss  plans  for  the  invasion  of  England. 
They  have  worked  the  whole  thing  out;  Blumenthal  told  me  he 
had  considered  it  from  every  point  of  view,  and  regarded  it  as 
quite  feasible." 


340        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

controlled  by  atavistic  tendencies.  "  We  must  con- 
quer or  die,  we  must  fight  for  what  we  want,"  they 
say.  Against  that  creed  remonstrance  beats  in  vain. 
The  milder,  manlier  school  of  thought  has  lost,  not 
only  in  influence  but  in  numbers.  Prince  Biilow,  in 
his  notable  book,  describing  quite  franlcly  the  con- 
flict between  the  old  German  intellectual  life  and  the 
Prussian  State,  says : 

"  My  late  friend,  Adolph  Wilbrandt,  in  a  pleasing  play, 
has  a  scene  between  an  official  belonging  to  the  North  Ger- 
man nobility  and  the  daughter  of  a  savant  of  the  middle 
classes.  At  first  they  repel  each  other  and  quarrel.^  '  I  rep- 
resent the  Germany  of  Schiller,  Goethe  and  Lessing,'  says 
the  woman,  and  the  man  replies:  'And  I  represent  the  Ger- 
many of  Bismarck,  Bliicher  and  Moltke '  .  .  .  Our  future 
depends  on  whether,  and  to  what  extent,  we  succeed  in  amal- 
gamating German  intellect  with  the  Prussian  monarchy." 

Militarism  has  eaten  deeply  and  ravenously  into 
the  national  conscience  of  Germany;  the  nation  is 
prone  before  an  army  of  little  despots  living  inside 
a  ring-fence  which  no  echo  of  the  old  German 
thought  and  sentiment  penetrates.  The  men  of  this 
army  must,  however,  have  credit  for  what  they  are 
—  splendid  fighting  animals,  from  whom  all  but  the 
primal  fighting  instinct  has  been  sedulously  crushed 
out. 

Of  such  "  factors  of  control  "  was  Germany  com- 
posed in  the  summer  of  19 14.  Its  people  —  sorne 
of  them  unseeing  and  unwitting  —  made  worship  in 
secret  at  a  new  shrine,  while  outwardly  maintaining 
the  observances  of  the  orthodox  faith  of  interna- 
tional honour.  On  our  part  we  were  ignorant, 
blinded  by  a  great  duplicity,  and  dumbfounded  at 
last  by  the  real  truth.  We  have  realized  in  a  day  of 
unexpected  sacrifice  what  the  great  German  historian 


INTERNATIONAL  ORTHODOXY        341 

meant  when  he  wrote  of  "  The  childish  belief,  that 
civilization  is  able  to  extirpate  brutality  from  human 
nature."  ^" 

1^  Mommsen,  History  of  Rome,  Vol.  I,  p.  404. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

"  FRIGHTFULNESS  " 

Mankind  has  been  sickened  by  the  excesses  com- 
mitted by  the  German  armies  wherever  they  have 
gone,  and  this,  less  by  the  revolting  deeds  themselves, 
than  by  the  fact  that  they  have  been  the  outcome  of 
deliberate  war-policy. 

Individual  atrocities  are  committed  in  every  war, 
since  in  all  armies  savage  natures  find  a  natural  hab- 
itat. Military  service  attracts  them  because  of  the 
opportunity  offered  of  loot,  lust,  and  killing.  No 
army  can  guard  against  such  devilry,  but  great  sol- 
diers like  Wellington  have  sternly  punished  the  au- 
thor of  the  individual  atrocity.  This  incidental  — 
and  because  human  nature  is  what  it  is  —  inevitable, 
accident  of  warfare  is  wholly  distinct  from  the  policy 
of  official  organized  atrocity  such  as  Germany  has 
pursued  during  the  present  war.  The  Kaiser  and 
his  government  have  declared  officially,  and  Count 
Reventlow,  Professor  Lasson,  and  many  others  un- 
officially, that  the  policy  of  Germany  was  to  produce 
in  the  minds  of  the  enemy  people  an  effect  of  terror 
and  demoralization;  that  there  should  be  destruction, 
not  only  of  the  material  but  of  the  Intellectual  life  of 
the  nation,  by  which  is  undoubtedly  meant  its  morale, 
will-power,  and  spiritual  capacity  for  resistance. 
That  has  been  the  official  war-policy  carefully  de- 
veloped and  systematically,  ruthlessly,  and  viciously 
applied. 

The  doctrine  of  frightfulness  is  not  a  new  one,  but 
its  adoption  by  a  civilized  nation  as  a  settled  policy 
is  wholly  new.     In  old  days  it  was  the  normal  char- 

342 


SINNING  AGAINST  THE  LIGHT         343 

acteristic  of  war,  because  war  had  no  limitations. 
No  nice  distinctions  were  made  between  the  mihtary 
and  civil  populations,  between  public  and  private 
property;  no  bounds  were  set  to  the  privileges  of 
the  victor  over  the  vanquished.  Humanity  still  exe- 
crates the  names  of  Attila  and  Tamerlane,  and  we, 
in  modern  days,  stand  aghast  at  the  deeds  of  King 
Prempeh,  of  Chaka  the  Zulu,  and  of  Lobengula ;  but 
these  murderers,  and  others  like  them,  did  not  in- 
vent such  methods  of  warfare;  they  did  not  prescribe 
them  as  an  essential  part  of  their  military  scheme; 
they  took  things  as  they  were,  following  the  cus- 
toms and  moral  standards  of  days,  and  in  regions, 
which  knew  no  Knltiir.  Because  those  standards 
were  low  we  call  them  barbarians  and  savages. 

Germany,  however,  has  sinned  against  the  light; 
she  has  been  false  to  her  own  solemn  engagements; 
she  has  given  the  lie  to  her  own  professions;  she  has 
betrayed  the  moral  sense  of  her  age;  she  has  undone 
the  work  of  the  centuries.  Of  all  the  many  counts  in 
the  indictment  against  her,  this  last  is  the  most  griev- 
ous, that  she  has  ignored  the  spirit  of  civilized  war- 
fare. Rules  and  customs,  Geneva  Conventions  and 
Hague  Conferences  avail  nothing  unless  the  spirit 
of  the  combatants  conforms  to  them.  Valueless  in 
themselves,  since  no  power  exists  to  enforce  them, 
they  depend  for  their  validity  on  the  consciences  of 
the  signatories.  It  may,  indeed,  almost  be  said  that, 
unless  all  the  signatories  are  equally  loyal  to  them, 
they  may  be  worse  than  useless,  by  encouraging  those 
who  disregard  them  to  trust  to  the  higher  feelings  of 
others  for  their  own  escape  from  reprisals.  Those, 
for  example,  who  sacked  Louvain  and  ravaged 
Rhcims  may  hope  that  no  provocation  would  induce 
the  annihilation  of  Heidelberg  or  the  destruction  of 
Cologne  by  the  Allies. 


344        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Had  these  lapses  occurred  under  extreme  pressure 
of  military  necessity,  as  in  a  last  desperate  effort  to 
escape  defeat;  or  even  had  they  been  inspired  by  the 
wild  justice  of  revenge,  they  would  still  have  been 
unpardonable,  for  the  restraints  of  public  law  are 
devised  to  check  such  hideous  license  and  passion  of 
brutality.  The  recent  crimes  of  Germany  against 
humanity,  however,  have  none  of  these  palliations. 
Her  atrocities  began  when  the  war  began;  they  were 
at  their  height  when  her  forces  were  "  plunging 
down  the  path  of  victory."  The  plea  advanced  that 
it  was  all  in  accordance  with  the  military  law  of 
reprisals  will  be  examined  later  in  detail:  here  it  Is 
sujfficient  to  say  that  long  before  19 14  Germany  had 
adopted  the  doctrine  of  frightfulness  in  war,  though 
it  was  hoped  that  the  concert  of  civilization  would 
restrain  her  in  this  epoch  of  the  world's  life.  The 
following  precept,  often  erroneously  attributed  to 
Bismarck,  reflects  fairly  the  underlying  principles  of 
the  German  JVar-Book: 

"  True  strategy  consists  in  hitting  your  enemy,  and  hitting 
him  hard.  .  .  .  Above  all,  you  must  inflict  on  the  inhabitants 
of  invaded  towns  the  maximum  of  suffering,  so  that  they  may 
become  sick  of  the  struggle  and  may  bring  pressure  on  their 
Government  to  discontinue  it.  You  must  leave  the  people 
through  v\^hom  you  march  only  their  eyes  to  weep  with." 

No  one  will  quarrel  with  the  first  sentence  in  this 
pronouncement.  Against  the  armed  enemy  ruthless 
vigour  is  necessary,  and  it  may  in  the  end  be  the 
truest  humanity;  though  even  against  the  armed  en- 
emy limits  have  been  set  which  have  been  callously 
disregarded  by  Germany.  The  German  war-maker, 
however,  is  not  content  with  this.  The  civil  popula- 
tion, the  old  men,  the  women  and  children  are  to 
be  harried,  tortured,  robbed  of  all  but  their  tear- 


A  GOODLY  PRECEDENT  345 

wet  eyes,  so  that  their  Government  may  be  induced 
to  surrender.  Cruelty  is  to  achieve  what  valour 
alone  might  fail  to  win.  This  monstrous  doctrine  is 
the  negation  of  all  human  progress.  It  revives  prin- 
ciples which  revolted  mankind  centuries  ago.  Shake- 
speare, whom  Germany  now  claims  as  her  own,  puts 
words  into  the  mouth  of  Henry  V,  which  express  the 
Elizabethan,  and  indeed  the  Plantagenet,  idea  of 
war.  Hearing  that  Bardolph  was  "  like  to  be 
hanged  for  robbing  a  church,"  the  King  says: 

"  We  would  have  all  such  offenders  so  cut  off;  and  we  give 
express  charge,  that  in  our  marches  through  the  country  there 
be  nothing  compelled  from  the  villagers,  nothing  taken  but 
paid  for,  none  of  the  French  upbraided  or  abused  in  disdain- 
ful language;  for  when  lenity  and  cruelty  play  for  a  King- 
dom, the  gentler  gamester  is  the  truest  winner."  ^ 

The  modern  War  Lords  of  Germany  will  have  no 
chivalrous  sentiments  such  as  these.  Field  Marshal 
von  der  Goltz  expounded  the  Teutonic  war-policy 
when  he  declared  that  the  only  unpardonable  sin  is 
failure,  and  that,  "  inexorable  and  seemingly  hideous 
callousness  are  among  the  attributes  necessary  to 
him  who  would  achieve  great  things  in  war."  In 
similar  manner  Von  Moltke,  in  his  correspondence 
with  Professor  Bluntschli,  denounced  the  doctrine 
that  the  object  of  war  is  simply  to  weaken  the  enemy's 
military  strength.  In  the  Kriegshraiich,  wherein 
the  German  General  Staff  lays  down  war-rules  for 
the  German  forces,  this  view  is  upheld.  There  are 
plenty  of  admirable  rules  (as  given  in  a  previous 
chapter),  sentiments  which  would  do  honour  to 
Joseph  Surface,  but  they  are  flanked  and  outnum- 
bered by  exceptions,  i^rofessor  Liider,  an  eminent 
international  jurist,  lends  legal  authority  to  the  Ger- 
man General  Staff,  when  he  qualifies  the  humanizing 

1  Henry  V,  Act  III,  Scene  6. 


346        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

doctrine  of  war  usage  by  emphasizing  "  the  terrorism 
so  often  necessary  in  war."  ^  The  whole  Germanic 
theory  of  warfare,  indeed,  is  permeated  by  the  doc- 
trines of  Clausewitz,  who  denounced  magnanimity 
and  benevolence  as  a  fatal  error,  and  declared  it  to 
be  an  absurdity  "  to  introduce  a  principle  of  modera- 
tion into  the  philosophy  of  war." 

Such  doctrines  are  incompatible  with  the  interna- 
tional rules  regulating  warfare,  and  it  is  a  singular 
and  significant  fact  that  the  Kriegshrauch,  issued  for 
the  guidance  of  the  German  army,  does  not  include 
the  Hague  Regulations,  as  does  the  British  Manual 
of  Military  Law.  Germany,  in  fact,  is  her  own 
law-maker,  and  will  have  no  public  law.  Though 
she  set  her  hand  to  The  Hague  Convention,  it  was 
clearly  with  the  secret  reservation  that  its  august 
rules  must  be  subordinated  to  her  own  rules  which 
she  would  make  during  the  course  of  war.  In  ef- 
fect, no  law  is  recognized  save  that  of  the  "  good 
German  conscience,"  so  loudly  extolled  in  the  Ger- 
man Press,  and  to  which  Baron  Marschall  von  Bieb- 
erstein  appealed  at  the  Hague  Conference,  when 
he  refused  to  accept  Great  Britain's  proposals  for 
restricting  the  use  of  marine  mines.  As  things 
stand,  conscience  is  the  only  sanction  of  international 
law;  but  when  conscience  itself  knows  no  rules  or 
limitations,  when  it  stretches  to  meet  every  necessity 
real  or  imaginary,  what  then?  Well,  then  we  have 
what  we  have  — "  red  ruin  and  the  breaking  up  of 
laws." 

There  are  three  tribunals  before  which  Germany 
can  be  arraigned  —  her  own  Kriegshrauch,  the  So- 
ciety of  Nations,  and  Humanity.  She  cannot  dis- 
pute the  competency  of  any  one  of  them  to  hear  the 
case,  for  she  herself  has  constructed  the  first;  and 

2  Holtzendorff's  Handbuch  de$  Volkerrechis,  IV,  378. 


BOMBARDMENT  OF  OPEN  TOWNS      347 

since  the  war  began  she  has  appealed  to  the  other 
two,  in  regard  to  bombardment  of  open  towns,  the 
use  of  dum-dum  bullets  and  the  stoppage  of  food  sup- 
plies. She  is,  therefore,  placed  in  this  dilemma:  if 
she  acknowledges  The  Hague  Convention,  she 
pleads  guilty;  if  she  does  not,  she  places  herself  out- 
side the  law  of  nations,  and  must  submit  to  be  treated 
as  a  barbarian  country.  But,  in  framing  the  indict- 
ment, let  it  once  more  be  made  clear,  that  the  charge 
against  Germany  is  not  alone  that  rules  have  been 
broken  and  humanity  outraged  as  that  these  things 
have  been  done  according  to  a  settled  official  policy 
of  terrorism. 

Take,  tor  example,  the  bombardment  of  open  and 
undefended  towns,  forbidden  both  by  The  Hague 
Convention  and  by  the  Kriegshraiich.  The  law  is 
quite  plain,  and  it  does  not  err  on  the  side  of  mercy. 
Fortresses  and  strong  places  may  always  be  at- 
tacked; open  towns,  villages  and  houses  may  be  bom- 
barded when  occupied  or  used  for  military  purposes. 
When  fortresses  are  bombarded,  the  bombardment 
may  extend  to  the  whole  town,^ —  though  the  humane 
commander  would  naturally  avoid  that  if  possible 
—  but  churches,  schools,  libraries,  and  the  like  must 
be  spared  so  far  as  may  be.  In  no  case,  however, 
may  hospitals  be  bombarded.  How  Germany  has 
obeyed  these  rules  is  now  known  to  all  the  world. 
Give  her  the  benefit  of  the  doubt,  wherever  doubt 
is  possible,  she  still  is  damnably  guilty.  It  is  clear 
that  at  Ypres,  Arras  and  Rheims,  not  only  was  no 
care  taken  to  spare  historic  buildings,  but  such  splen- 
did monuments  as  the  Cathedral,  the  Cloth  Hall 
and  the  Markets  were  made  especial  targets.  If  it 
may  be  pleaded  that  discrimination  in  long-range 
fire  is  difficult,  and  that  these  cities  were  involved 
in  military  operations,  no  such  plea  can  be  advanced 


348        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

for  the  bombardment  of  Scarborough,  Whitby,  Yar- 
mouth and  the  Norfolk  villages.  Unfortified,  un- 
occupied by  armed  forces,  the  attack  upon  them  was 
wanton,  murderous,  and  served  no  mihtary  purpose 
whatever. 

The  sanctity  of  hospitals  has  been  constantly  vio- 
lated. The  Cathedral  of  Rheims  was  not  only  a 
Church,  it  sheltered  wounded  men,  some  of  whom 
perished  in  the  attack.  As  offensive  to  all  human 
feeling  also  was  the  deliberate  attempt  made  to  tor- 
pedo the  hospital  ship  Asturias  on  February  2nd, 
191 5,  near  Havre,  although  she  bore  all  the  signs 
of  her  calling  —  the  white  hull,  the  green  band,  the 
Red  Cross  of  Geneva.  Germany  made  a  futile  apol- 
ogy for  this  business  many  weeks  after  the  event, 
when  public  opinion  in  neutral  countries  was  roused 
and  sternly  reproachful.  The  explanation  was  that 
the  Asturias  carried  no  distinctive  lights  and  that  in 
the  dusk  of  a  February  evening  (5  p.  M.)  her  mark- 
ings could  not  be  distinguished. 

The  apology  is  as  lame  as  it  was  belated  and  un- 
true. It  was  a  very  light  and  clear  evening,  and 
at  5.15  broad  daylight,  and  in  no  possibility  could 
the  character  of  the  ship  be  mistaken.  It  was  possi- 
ble to  trace  the  track  of  the  torpedo  four  hundred 
yards  away.^  But  even  had  it  some  foundation,  does 
it  reduce  the  guilt  of  the  would-be  murderer  that, 
meaning  to  kill  Smith,  he  fires  at  Jones,  without  tak- 
ing pains  to  be  sure  of  the  identity?  To  sink  a 
peaceful  vessel  without  warning  and  without  any  care 
for  the  passengers  and  crew  was  contrary  to  inter- 
national law  and  sheer  murder.  That  a  civilized  na- 
tion should  permit  or  condone  such  deeds  is  sadden- 
ing and  depressing.  It  never  seems  to  occur  to  Ger- 
many that  without  superior  sea-power  we  are  in  a 

8  Admiralty  statement,  Feb.  13th,  1915. 


PIRATES  349 

position  to  make  reprisals  of  a  staggering  nature, 
if  we  are  so  minded.  She  appears  to  think,  how- 
ever, that  we  have  not  the  courage  for  reprisals. 
She  regards  every  exhibition  of  magnanimity  as  a 
sign  of  weakness,  as  an  appeal  for  less  violence  on 
her  part.  That  the  Admiralty  should  at  last  take 
action  to  show  that  the  British  navy  was  revolted  by 
the  German  navy's  disregard  of  the  rules  of  war 
did  something  to  restore  British  self-respect.  It  re- 
fused the  honours  of  war  to  the  officers  and  crew 
of  submarine  U8  for  having  torpedoed  and  sunk 
in  the  English  Channel  unarmed  merchantmen  carry- 
ing non-combatants,  neutrals  and  women."* 

On  August  22nd,  1914,  the  47th  Regiment  of  Ger- 
man Infantry  entered  the  village  of  Gomery  in  Bel- 
gium.    The  officer  in  command  went  to  the  hos- 

*0n  the  8th  of  March,  1915,  the  Admiralty  made  the  following 
announcement:  "Since  the  war  began,  His  Majesty's  ships  have 
on  every  occasion  done  their  utmost  to  rescue  from  the  sea  German 
officers  and  men  w'hose  vessels  have  been  sunk,  and  more  than  1,000 
have  been  saved,  often  in  circumstances  of  difficulty  and  danger, 
although  no  such  treatment  has  ever  yet  been  shown  to  British 
sailors  in  similar  distress.  The  officers  and  men  thus  taken  pris- 
oners have  received  the  treatment  appropriate  to  their  rank  and 
such  courtesies  as  the  service  allows;  and  in  the  case  of  the  Emden 
were  accorded  the  honours  of  war.  The  Board  of  Admiralty  do 
not,  however,  feel  justified  in  extending  honourable  treatment  to  the 
twenty-nine  officers  and  men  rescued  from  submarine  U8.  This 
vessel  has  been  operating  in  the  Straits  of  Dover  and  the  English 
Channel  during  the  last  few  weeks,  and  there  is  strong  probability 
that  she  has  been  guilty  of  attacking  and  sinking  unarmed  mer- 
chantmen and  firing  torpedoes  at  ships  carrying  non-cornbatants, 
neutrals,  and  women.  In  particular,  the  s.s.  Oriole  is  missing,  and 
there  is  grave  reason  to  fear  she  was  sunk  at  the  beginning  of 
February  with  all  hands —  twenty.  There  is  of  course_  great  dif- 
ficulty in  bringing  home  particular  crimes  to  any  individual  Ger- 
man submarine,  and  it  may  be  that  the  evidence  necessary  to  es- 
tablish a  conviction  will  not  be  obtained  until  after  the  conclusion 
of  peace.  In  the  meantime,  persons  against  whom  such  charges 
are  pending  must  be  the  subject  of  special  restriction,  cannot  be 
accorded  the  distinctions  of  their  rank,  or  be  allowed  to  mingle  with 
other  prisoners  of  war." 


350        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

pital,  asked  for  an  Interpreter,  and  shot  the  ambu- 
lance officer  as  soon  as  he  appeared.  He  then  led 
his  men  into  the  hospital,  killed  the  surgeons  and  the 
wounded,  and  burned  the  hospital  and  the  village 
to  the  ground.  That  was  one  way  of  insulting  hu- 
manity; but  ingenuity  found  another.  At  Vilvorde, 
on  August  25th,  the  Germans  abused  the  sanctity  of 
the  Red  Cross  by  hoisting  its  flag  over  their  bar- 
racks to  secure  the  safety  of  their  soldiers.  Yet 
even  the  indulgent  Kriegsbraiich  declares  abuse  of 
the  Red  Cross  to  be  so  vile  as  to  place  the  guilty 
party  outside  the  pale  of  honourable  men. 

At  sea  the  conduct  of  the  war  by  Germany  has 
been  marked  by  persistent  disregard  of  the  rules  and 
the  spirit  of  modern  warfare.  She  has  from  the 
beginning  been  reckless  and  remorseless  in  the  use  of 
mines,  though  at  The  Hague  Conference  in  1907 
Marschall  von  Bieberstein  said  that,  "  A  belligerent 
who  lays  mines  assumes  a  very  heavy  responsibility 
towards  neutrals  and  peaceful  navigation."  So 
strongly  did  the  sense  of  this  responsibility  press  on 
the  British  delegates  that  they  protested  against  the 
rules  adopted  as  being  inadequate  for  the  protection 
of  neutrals  or  to  satisfy  humanitarian  sentiments. 
Their  statement  merits  quotation: 

"  The  high  seas  are  an  international  high  road.  If  in  the 
present  state  of  international  law  and  custom  belligerents  are 
permitted  to  carry  on  their  quarrels  there,  it  is  none  the  less 
incumbent  upon  them  to  do  nothing  which  could,  long  after 
their  departure  from  the  spot,  render  this  high  road  dangerous 
for  neutrals  who  have  an  equal  right  to  use  it.  We  declare 
without  hesitation  that  the  rights  of  neutrals  to  safety  in  the 
navigation  of  the  high  seas  ought  to  prevail  over  the  temporary 
rights  of  belligerents  to  make  use  of  them  as  a  place  for  oper- 
ations of  war." 

Having  pointed  out  how  far  short  of  this  object 


MINES  351 

the    Convention    fell,    the    British   spokesman   con- 
cluded : 

"  It  follows  that  one  must  not  assume  that  such  and  such 
a  proceeding  is  legitimate  merely  because  the  Convention  does 
not  prohibit  it.  This  is  a  principle  which  we  make  a  point 
of,  and  one  which  cannot  be  neglected  by  any  State,  however 
great  be  Its  power." 

This  statement,  which  effectually  answers  the  ac- 
cusation now  so  freely  made,  that  Great  Britain 
claims  the  right  to  close  the  neighbouring  waters 
against  the  world  and  to  make  the  North  Sea  mare 
claiisiim,  will  receive  general  assent.  Germany, 
however,  not  only  dissented  from  these  principles  at 
the  time,  but  she  has  grossly  and  continuously  broken 
the  Convention  since.  She  has  violated  Article  i, 
forbidden  unanchored  automatic  contact  mines  which 
would  not  become  harmless  within  an  hour  of  being 
laid;  or  the  use  of  anchored  contact  mines  which 
would  not  become  harmless  as  soon  as  they  broke 
loose.  She  has  violated  Article  2,  prohibiting  the 
laying  of  automatic  contact  rnines  off  the  enemy's 
coast  and  ports  with  the  view  of  intercepting  vessels 
of  commerce;  and  she  has  not,  in  compliance  with 
Article  3,  taken  any  precautions  for  the  security  of 
peaceful  shipping.  She  has  never  —  except  in  re- 
gard to  her  new  paper-blockade,  in  which  all  neutral 
shipping  is  to  suffer  —  notified  the  danger  zones  to 
mariners,  or  directed  the  attention  of  the  various 
Governments  to  them  through  diplomatic  channels, 
as  required  by  the  Convention,  save  in  such  general 
terms  as  to  nullify  the  intention  of  the  rule. 

As  a  result,  live  mines  have  been  washed  ashore 
on  the  coast  of  Holland,  neutral  shipping  has  been 
destroyed  within  the  North  Sea  and  on  the  Swedish 
and   Irish   Coast.     Even  fishing-boats,   which   from 


352        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

time  Immemorial  have  been  regarded  as  inviolable, 
have  been  sunk  and  their  crews  drowned  or  im- 
prisoned. Very  many  lives  have  been  lost,  and  neu- 
trals have  had  their  trade  seriously  impeded,  while 
Great  Britain  has  been  unwillingly  compelled,  In  self- 
defence,  to  lay  extensive  minefields  in  the  North  Sea, 
though  she  has  scrupulously  notified  her  Intentions 
and  has  taken  every  care  to  protect  trading-ships  in 
their  passages. 

In  his  reply  to  the  speech  of  the  British  represen- 
tative above  quoted,  Baron  Marschall  von  Beiber- 
steln  asserted  the  principle  that  military  proceedings 
are  not  regulated  solely  by  the  stipulations  of  inter- 
national law.  He  hinted  that  they  might  be  over- 
ridden by  the  exigencies  of  warfare;  but  on  the  other 
hand  he  declared  that  the  most  effectual  safeguards 
against  abuse  would  be  such  factors  as  "  conscience, 
good  sense,  and  a  sense  of  the  duties  which  the  prin- 
ciples of  humanity  impose." 

That  is  "  all  very  fine  and  large,"  as  the  man  in 
the  music-hall  used  to  say;  but  German  conscience, 
good  sense  and  humanity  are  unequal  to  the  strain 
of  temptation.  Under  pressure  of  circumstances 
Germany's  naval  warfare  has  degenerated  into 
piracy  of  the  most  ugly  and  primitive  kind.  Cap- 
tain KIdd  and  Blackbeard  made  men  walk  the  plank, 
but  the  naval  heroes  of  Germany  give  their  victims 
no.  such  merciful  notice.  It  was  by  pure  good  for- 
tune that  only  forty  out  of  a  company  of  two  thou- 
sand poor  Belgian  refugees  were  drowned,  when  the 
Amiral  Ganteaiime  was  sunk  in  the  English  Channel 
on  October  24th.  The  ruffians  who  discharged  the 
torpedo  took  no  futher  Interest  In  the  business.  Not 
far  from  the  same  spot,  near  Havre,  the  steamers 
Tokomaru  and  Icaria  were  sunk  by  a  submarine  on 


MURDERS  353 

January   30th,    191 5,   without   any  warning  to  the 
crews  as  prescribed  in  The  Hague  Convention. 

Emboldened  by  these  base,  inglorious  perform- 
ances, Germany  has  declared  war  against  the  ship- 
ping of  the  whole  world.  Determined  to  break 
away  from  international  law,  she  first  made  mock  of 
it  by  proclaiming  a  blockade  of  the  British  Islands 
which  she  proposed  to  enforce  with  a  score  of  sub- 
marines. It  >vould  now  appear  that  that  proclama- 
tion was  seriously  meant.  In  this  alternative  Ger- 
many vitiated  her  own  case,  for  she  acknowledged 
that  there  was  such  a  thing  as  international  law,  and 
then  declared  her  intention  of  violating  it  by  sinking 
all  vessels,  under  whatever  flag,  without  sumrnons 
or  examination.  She  has  carried  her  intention  into 
effect.  Again  and  again  British  vessels  —  and  even 
neutral  vessels  —  have  been  sunk  by  torpedoes  with- 
out notice  or  examination,  without  care  or  regard  for 
the  life  of  passenger  non-combatants,  who  have  even 
been  fired  upon  as  their  ship  went  down. 

Cruel  as  the  Germans  were  at  the  beginning  of 
this  war,  their  cruelty  has  steadily  increased  with 
each  check  they  have  received;  until,  at  last,  every 
law  and  custom  of  civilized  war  has  been  thrown  to 
the  winds;  and  on  land  and  sea  German  official  atro- 
cities have  been  greater  than  the  world  has  ever 
known.  The  work  of  devils  has  been  done  by  the 
German  army  and  navy;  and  the  price  of  the  infamy 
must  be  sternly  exacted,  if  Englishmen  have  still  left 
in  them  manhood  and  respect  for  the  honour  of  hu- 
manity. To  retribution  in  kind  we  cannot  resort; 
but  if  we  are  just,  we  shall  put  these  things  first  in 
the  bill  which  must  be  paid  at  the  end  of  it  all.  As 
this  chapter  goes  to  the  printers,  comes  the  news  of 
the  latest  German  crime  of  the  sea.     The  command- 


354        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

ers  of  the  submarines  which,  in  the  last  days  of 
March,  sank  the  Falaha  and  the  Agiiila  have  in- 
vested naval  warfare  with  new  niceties  of  barbar- 
ism. To  give  the  crew  of  the  Aguila  four  minutes 
in  which  to  leave  their  ship,  and  then,  before  even 
that  scanty  time  had  elapsed,  to  shoot  down  those 
who  were  trying  to  lower  the  boats,  was  a  refine- 
ment of  treachery.  To  sink  a  great  liner,  like  the 
Falaba,  before  passengers  and  crew  could  get  away 
had  the  savagery  of  wild  Indians;  but  to  steam  round 
and  round  among  the  hundred  and  fifty  drowning 
people  —  some  of  them  women  —  mocking  their 
struggles,  is  worse  than  savage :  it  is  the  now  ac- 
cepted conduct  of  a  German  officer.^ 

Not  in  Great  Britain  alone  has  the  crime  of  the 
Falaba  aroused  just  anger  and  horror.  On  March 
30th  and  31st  American  newspapers  exclaimed  in 
indignation  against  the  crime.  The  Nezv  York 
Times  expressed  even  more  moderately  than  many 
of  its  colleagues  the  general  feeling,  when  it  said: 

"  The  sinking  of  the  Falaba  is  perhaps  the  most  shocking 
crime  of  the  war.  It  is  a  crime  directly  chargeable  against 
Germany,  a  crime  for  which  Germany  will  be  held  responsible 
in  the  judgment  of  civilization,  unless  an  official  disclaimer 
of  the  act  as  unauthorized  and  condemned  is  promptly  forth- 
coming. It  is  well-nigh  incredible,  whatever  threats  Ger- 
many may  have  made  in  the  war-zone  proclamation,  that  she 
should  have  issued  to  the  commanders  of  her  submarines 
orders  to  commit  these  crimes  of  inhuman  atrocity.  The  ob- 
jects of  war  are  not  furthered  by  the  slaughter  of  innocent 
men  and  women." 

For  the  Germans  to  plead  that  the  development  of 
the  submarine  has  revolutionized  the  laws  of  naval 

5  On  April  i8th,  1915,  a  German  submarine  sank  the  trawler 
Vanilla,  and  then  attacked  the  crew  of  her  consort,  the  FermOf 
while  they  were  trying  to  save  their  drowning  comrades. 


ORGANIZED  TERRORIS:\I  355 

warfare  Is  conscienceless.  The  laws  are  there,  sub- 
scribed to  by  Germany,  valid  until  they  are  changed 
by  the  Society  of  Nations.  If  their  observance  by 
submarines  is  impossible,  then  submarines  should  be 
employed  for  work  which  is  in  accordance  with  in- 
ternational law.  On  that  basis  England  is  wholly 
justified  in  the  blockade  she  is  enforcing  against  Ger- 
many, by  which  she  prevents  all  supplies  from  reach- 
ing German  ports  via  the  North  Sea.  In  doing  so 
she  respects  both  property  and  human  life  and  de- 
stroys neither.  The  shameless  crimes  which  have 
been  committed  since  February  i8th,  19 15,  and  the 
previous  attacks  on  the  Astiirias  and  other  vessels, 
have  been  simply  an  application  of  the  doctrine  of 
frightfulness.  Vice-Admiral  Kirchoff,  of  the  Ger- 
man Navy,  admitted  as  much  in  an  article  in  the 
Hamburger  Fremdoihlatt.  He  said  that  there  was 
no  question  of  a  regular  blockade,  as  Germany  had 
not  sufficient  war  material  at  her  disposal.  When 
establishing  the  war  zone  Germany's  great  aim  was 
to  bring  a  feeling  of  uneasiness  and  insecurity  to  a 
climax,  so  that  human  nerve  could  not  stand  the 
strain  long.^'  This  is  the  doctrine  of  Schrechlichkeit 
In  a  nutshell. 

To  see  It  In  Its  fullest  development,  we  must  turn 
to  the  war  on  land;  and  for  the  present  purpose  It 
will  be  sufficient  to  treat  of  the  Western  area  which 
contributes  proofs  minutely  sifted  and  examined.'^ 

Twelve  months  ago  Belgium  was  peaceful,  pros- 

•5  London  Standard,  February  20th,  1915. 

'  To  avoid  multiplying  references,  it  may  here  be  said  that  most 
of  the  facts  as  to  the  German  atrocities  in  Belgium  and  France 
are  taken  from  the  Reports  of  the  French  and  Belgian  Commis- 
sions. M.  Northomb's  article  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  the 
facts  of  which  are  derived  from  official  sources  has  been  drawn 
upon,  as  has  also  Professor  Bedier's  remarkable  pamphlet,  Les 
Crimes  AUrmands  d'aprrs  des  temoi,ir7ia,ircs  allcmands,  which  con- 
tains facsimiles  of  German  diaries,  IcJii  ii;*d  newspaper  articles. 


356        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

parous,  happy,  a  densely  populated  hive  of  Industry, 
and  her  peasants  were  sowing  a  harvest  they  would 
never  reap.  In  her  workshops  artisans  were  busy, 
the  hammers  and  looms  were  never  still.  Students 
from  many  countries  were  studying  In  her  great  uni- 
versity; from  all  the  world  visitors  came  to  see  her 
ancient  cities  —  dreams  of  beauty,  monuments  of  a 
splendid  past,  treasure-houses  of  art.  It  was  a  na- 
tion given  over  to  the  arts  of  peace;  coveting  the 
territory  of  no  other  nation;  quarrelling  with  none; 
desiring  only  to  be  free;  content  to  live  out  its  life 
of  patient  endeavour,  "  storing  yearly  little  dues  of 
wheat  and  wine  and  oil." 

Of  this  people  what  Is  left  to-day?  Hundreds  of 
thousands  are  In  exile,  living  on  charity  —  even  those 
once  wealthy  —  In  foreign  lands,  all  in  discomfort, 
many  in  wretchedness  and  robbed  even  of  hope. 
Their  King  fights  in  the  trenches  in  the  last  corner 
of  his  kingdom,  his  Government  sits  In  alien  terri- 
tory. The  lot  of  those  who  fled  In  that  awful  ex- 
odus Is  wretched,  the  lot  of  those  who  have  stayed 
behind  Is  Infinitely  worse.  They  crouch  in  ruins 
which  once  were  homes.  They  call  for  bread  and 
salt,  and  it  is  not  forthcoming.  They  would  have 
starved  altogether  but  for  the  great-hearted  pity  of 
other  nations.  They  are  the  wards  of  the  world. 
The  nation  which  had  reduced  them  to  this  pass  is 
content  to  see  them  perish  of  the  famine  it  has  made. 
What  supplies  it  did  not  destroy  In  burning  towns 
and  granaries,  it  seized,  and  still  demanded  more, 
while  levying  Immense  fines.  When  charity  poured 
food  into  Belgium,  the  conquerors  balanced  it  by 
making  larger  requisitions;  and  they  did  so  by  a  frau- 
dulent evasion  of  the  spirit  of  their  engagements  to 
the  people  of  America,  Canada  and  Australia  who 
sent  these  gifts. 


CARDINAL  :\IERCIER'S  PASTORAL        357 

Beside  all  that  has  been  written  about  Belgium,  its 
miseries,  and  the  evil  done  to  it,  the  famous  Pastoral 
Letter  of  Cardinal  Mercier,  Archbishop  of  Malines 
and  Primate  of  Belgium  stands  out  in  striking  vivid- 
ness and  power.  Seldom  to  the  modern  world  has 
there  been  given  a  message  of  greater  character,  no- 
bility and  rare  description.  After  giving  details  of 
barbarities  committed,  of  "  churches,  schools,  asy- 
lums, hospitals,  convents,"  in  ruins  and  "  entire  vil- 
lages "  obliterated,  the  Cardinal  says: 

"  Hundreds  of  innocent  men  were  shot.  I  possess  no  com- 
plete necrology;  but  I  know  that  there  were  ninety-one  shot 
at  Aerschot,  and  that  there  under  pain  of  death  their  fellow- 
citizens  were  compelled  to  dig  their  graves.  In  the  Louvain 
group  of  communes  one  hundred  and  seventy-six  persons,  men 
and  women,  old  men  and  sucklings,  rich  and  poor,  in  health 
and  sickness,  were  shot  or  burnt.  In  my  diocese  alone  I  know 
that  thirteen  priests  or  religious  were  put  to  death. ^  .  .  .  We 
can  neither  number  our  dead  nor  compute  the  measure  of 
our  ruins.  And  what  would  it  be  if  we  turned  our  sad  steps 
towards  Liege,  Namur,  Andenne,  Dinant,  Tamines,  Charle- 
roi,  and  elsewhere?  " 

This  courageous  prince  of  his  church,  whose  Pas- 
toral Is  the  sternest  indictment  of  Germany  yet 
drawn,  gives  the  names  of  thirty  priests  In  the  dio- 
cese of  Namur,  Tournal,  and  Liege,  all  of  whom,  to 
his  own  personal  knowledge  were  slain  in  cold  blood, 
and  declares  that  his  people  look  to  be  righted,  and 
that  "  they  will  not  hear  of  surrender."  The  three 
nations  of  the  Entente  have  pledged  themselves  that 
he  will  not  be  disappointed. 

Termonde,  Huy,  Dinant,  and  Aerschot,  once 
places  of  pleasantness  and  home,  are  scenes  of  deso- 
lation and  ruin  which  bats  and  owls  inhabit,  where 
only  the  voice  of  the  furtive  mourner  is  heard.     Ma- 

*  The  names  of  priests  and  parishes  are  given. 


358        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

lines  is  shattered;  the  glorious  Cloth  Hall  of  Ypres 
is  a  wreck;  churches,  the  glory  of  Europe,  desecrated 
by  indescribable  bestiality,  are  shapeless  ruins;  Lou- 
vain,  that  sweet  and  ancient  seat  of  learning,  is  a 
place  of  desolation.  The  German,  reproached, 
shrugs  his  shoulders  as  did  the  Duke  of  Wurtemburg, 
and,  neither  resentful  nor  compassionate,  says, 
"  What  would  you  !     This  is  war." 

Yes,  it  is  war;  but  it  is  not  a  war  which  belongs  to 
civilization.  It  is  not  even  war  as  it  has  been  under- 
stood by  heathendom  for  three  thousand  years.  Here 
is  the  vital  issue  between  the  accusers  and  the  apolo- 
gists of  Germany:  has  the  devastation  of  Belgium 
been  a  deliberate  method  or  a  stern  necessity  of 
war?  Germany  says  it  is  the  latter.  All  has  been 
forced  upon  her  by  the  acts  of  her  enemies,  which 
justify  punishment  and  reprisal.  She  takes  her 
stand  upon  the  notorious  telegram  from  Berlin  early 
last  August,  which  unloosed  the  storms  of  wanton- 
ness, of  murder  and  of  woe: 

"  The  only  means  of  preventing  surprise  attacks  from  the 
civil  population  has  been  to  interfere  with  unrelenting  sever- 
ity, and  to  create  examples  which  by  their  f rightfulness  would 
be  a  warning  to  the  whole  country." 

The  question  to  be  examined  is  whether  this  procla- 
mation was  merely  intended  to  meet  infractions  of 
law  by  the  Belgians,  or  whether  it  was  not  an  enuncia- 
tion of  the  doctrine  of  terrorism  preached  by  Clause- 
witz  and  Bismarck. 

The  first  point  to  be  observed  is  that  the  presump- 
tion is  against  Germany.  She  does  not  come  into 
court  with  clean  hands.  As  has  been  shown  in  an- 
other chapter,^  her  war  record  is  one  crimson  with 
dishonour.     She  has  stood  aloof  from  the  onward 

^  Civilization  and  this  War,  chap.  xvi. 


SLAUGHTER  OF  THE  INNOCENT        359 

march  of  humanity.  Her  policy  has  been  that  of 
the  "  hammer  and  the  skull  " —  the  skull  and  cross- 
bones.  When,  therefore,  she  has  to  answer  charges 
of  violence  and  cruelty,  we  are  entitled  to  demand 
from  her  plainer  proofs  of  innocence  than  from 
other  Western  nations.  When  pressed  to  meet,  by 
proof,  the  charges  made  against  her,  there  have  been 
blank  denials,  or  the  charges  have  been  ignored;  or, 
with  an  almost  Oriental  cunning,  the  protesting  Gov- 
ernments have  been  invited  to  give  the  names  of  the 
offending  soldiers ! 

The  charge  is  not  that  this  soldier  or  that  killed  or 
mutilated  a  certain  person,  but  that  thousands  of  per- 
sons have  been  killed  and  thousands  of  houses  de- 
stroyed by  order  of  German  officers.  What  they 
have  to  do  is  to  prove  that  these  acts  were  justified 
through  a  war-crime  committed  by  the  civilian  popu- 
lation. Except  in  the  case  of  Aerschot,  there  has 
never  been  an  attempt  to  fix  an  offence  against  the 
laws  of  war  upon  individuals.  It  is,  indeed,  beyond 
peradventure  that  in  some  cases  there  was  no  provo- 
cation at  all.  A  Saxon  officer  of  the  178th  Regi- 
ment, 1 2th  Army  Corps,  describes  in  his  diary  the 
destruction  of  a  village  In  the  Ardennes.  Here  is 
his  frank  histoire: 

"  August  26th.  The  charming  village  of  Gue-d'  Hossus 
has  been  delivered  to  the  flames,  though,  as  far  as  I  can  see, 
it  is  quite  innocent.  I  am  told  that  a  cyclist  fell  from  his 
machine,  and  that  in  his  fall  his  rifle  went  off  of  itself,  where- 
upon the  place  was  fired.  They  then  simply  flung  the  male 
Inhabitants  Into  the  flames." 

There  have  also  been  cases  when  such  tragedies 
were  only  averted  by  chance.  In  the  Revue  des 
Deux  Alondes,  M.  Northomb  relates  a  case  in  point. 
In  a  certain  district  a  shot  was  fired  which  killed  a 


36o        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

horse;  the  customary  vengeance  of  shooting  the  in- 
habitants was  about  to  be  taken  when  an  officer,  less 
impulsive  than  the  rest,  thought  well  to  order  an 
autopsy,  which  proved  that  the  animal  had  been 
killed  by  a  Mauser  bullet.  The  Mauser  bullet  is 
only  used  by  the  German  army.  An  illuminating  in- 
cident also  occurred  at  Croismare.  While  the  Cure 
was  talking  to  a  German  officer  a  shot  was  fired. 
"  M.  le  Cure,"  said  the  officer,  "  that  is  enough  to 
have  you  and  the  Maire  shot,  and  to  burn  a  farm  to 
the  ground.  Look,  there  is  one  burning  already." 
"  But,"  replied  the  Cure,  "  you  are  too  intelligent 
not  to  recognize  the  sharp  sound  of  your  own  rifle." 
To  this  the  officer  made  no  answer.  He  knew  that 
rifles  speak  with  difi^erent  accents,  and  he  recognized 
his  own.     Nevertheless  the  farm  was  burned. 

It  is  possible,  and  even  probable,  that  here  and 
there  civilians  committed  acts  of  violence  against 
German  soldiers.  If  it  be  true,  as  General  von 
Boehn  declared,  that  his  staff-officer  was  killed  in  his 
presence  by  the  son  of  the  householder  in  whose 
home  they  had  been  carousing,  it  is  necessary  to 
know  what  attempt  upon  the  family  honour  had 
roused  that  inoffensive  youth  of  sixteen  to  his  fatal 
fury.  Punishment  should  only  follow  after  careful 
inquiry,  but  any  pretext  sufficed  for  men  whose  aim 
was  to  be  terrible. 

And  they  were  terrible  enough.  In  many  places 
a  thousand  perished  where  no  one  was  guilty  of  any 
offence  whatever.  The  crimes  committed  have 
shocked  the  world,  but  what  happened  at  Tamines 
would  have  made  the  wife  of  Agamemnon  cover  her 
face.  After  an  artillery  engagement  the  Germans 
carried  a  bridge  across  the  Sambre,  and  entered  the 
village  at  5  P.M.  on  August  21st,  19 14.  Imme- 
diately the  work  of  pillage  began.     The  inhabitants 


TAMINES  AND  DINANT  361 

fled  from  their  homes,  only  to  be  overtaken  and  ar- 
rested the  next  day.  On  that  summer  evening,  Sat- 
urday, August  22nd,  the  Germans  turned  from  pil- 
lage to  massacre.  Before  the  church  by  die  river 
bank  they  began  the  slaughter  of  over  four  hundred 
men.  Finding  rifles  too  slow,  the  officers  ordered  up 
a  machine-gun,  and  turned  it  on  the  guiltless,  shud- 
dering crowd.  In  a  few  minutes,  ragged  columns  of 
helpless  victims,  in  the  hands  of  men  worse  than  those 
Lobengula  ever  commanded,  were  heaps  of  mangled 
flesh  and  shattered  bone.  Force  and  frightfulness, 
lead  and  steel,  had  once  more  proclaimed  themselves 
masters  over  human  beings  as  unarmed  as  ever  Adam 
was.  Seven  of  these  poor  souls  were  only  wounded, 
and  they  were  despatched  with  thrusts  and  blows. 
Some  feigned  death,  and  lay  all  night  with  the  dead, 
only  to  be  buried  aliv^e  with  the  other  victims  by  the 
order  of  a  doctor.  Then,  with  a  fiendish  refinement 
of  cruelty,  the  women  and  children,  the  widows  and 
orphans  —  such  as  had  escaped  being  burned  alive 
or  suffocated  in  their  burning  homes  —  were  forced, 
by  the  commanding  officer,  to  shout,  "  Long  live  Ger- 
many." What  was  the  offence  which  drew  down 
this  punishment?  None  has  ever  even  been  alleged. 
Dinant  figures  often  in  the  pages  of  Froissart.  In 
the  course  of  ages  the  town  has  witnessed  many 
scenes  of  savage  warfare,  but  none  so  dreadful  as 
those  of  four  fatal  days  in  August,  19 14.  From 
the  22nd  to  the  25th  of  that  month  this  beautiful 
place  was  given  over  to  rapine  and  murder.  It  was 
innocent  of  any  offence.  There  had  been  fighting 
some  little  time  before;  but  for  days  all  had  been 
calm;  there  had  been  no  Germans  near  the  town; 
there  had  been  no  opportunity  for  the  civil  popula- 
tion to  offend,  even  had  they  wished.  The  Germans 
entered  the  town  in  the  evening  of  the  21st,  and  as 


362        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

they  marched  they  began  firing  at  the  houses,  kilhng 
a  workman  gohig  home,  wounding  another,  and  forc- 
ing him  to  cry,  "  Long  live  the  Kaiser."  Having 
bayoneted  a  third  inhabitant  in  the  stomach,  they 
proceeded  to  get  drunk.  Saturday,  August  22nd, 
was  quiet,  for  the  people  were  hidden  in  their  houses. 
On  Sunday  the  storm  fell.  The  Church  of  the  Pre- 
monstratensian  Fathers  was  invaded,  the  congrega- 
tion were  driven  out,  and  fifty  men  were  killed. 
Then  hell  spilled  over.  Houses  were  sacked;  the 
flying  inhabitants  were  shot;  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren were  driven  into  the  Parade  Square,  and  there 
kept  prisoners  for  nine  hours  under  constant  threats 
of  death.  At  six  in  the  evening,  by  order  of  an 
oflicer,  the  men  were  grouped  separately  and  mur- 
dered. They  fell  in  heaps,  and  volley  after  volley 
was  poured  into  the  writhing  mass,  while  the  poor 
wives  and  children  of  the  victims  were  compelled  to 
witness  the  ghastly  scene.  There  was  no  inquiry, 
no  accusation,  no  pretence  of  a  trial.  Next  day  and 
the  day  after  the  hideous  work  proceeded.  A  crowd 
of  workmen  with  their  wives,  children,  and  others 
hid  in  the  cellars  of  M.  Himmer's  factory,  but  on 
the  evening  of  the  23rd  they  issued  forth,  holding 
up  a  white  flag,  only  to  be  mown  down.  In  another 
cellar  twelve  civilians  were  killed,  an  aged  paralytic 
was  shot  in  his  chair,  and  a  boy  of  14  was  killed  in 
the  Rue  Enfer  —  appropriate  name.  Following  on 
such  horrible  incidents  there  was  a  bloody  massacre 
at  the  railway  viaduct  in  the  Faubourg  de  Neffe.  An 
old  woman  and  all  her  children  were  killed  in  their 
cellar;  an  old  man,  with  his  wife,  son  and  daughter 
were  placed  against  a  wall  and  shot;  an  aged  crone 
of  83  and  her  husband  were  taken  with  others  in  a 
barge  down  the  river  and  there  butchered.  Having 
shut  up  some  men  and  women  in  the  courtyard  of  the 


JEMAPPES  363 

prison,  the  Germans  eventually  opened  fire  upon 
them  with  a  machine-gun  from  a  neighbouring  hill, 
and  killed  an  old  woman  and  three  others.  The 
Belgian  official  report  on  this  horror  ends  thus : 

"  To  sum  up,  the  town  of  Dinant  is  destrojed.  It  counted 
1,400  houses;  only  200  remain.  The  manufactories  where 
the  artisan  population  worked  have  been  systematically  de- 
stroyed. Rather  more  than  700  of  the  inhabitants  have  been 
killed ;  others  have  been  taken  off  to  Germany,  and  are  still 
retained  there  as  prisoners  of  war.  The  majority  are  refu- 
gees scattered  through  Belgium.  A  few  who  remained  in  the 
town  are  dying  of  hunger." 

The  cases  of  Tamines  and  Dinant  have  been  given, 
not  because  they  are  more  atrocious  than  others,  but 
because  they  present  some  significant  features  of  re- 
semblance. In  both,  the  Germans  commenced  their, 
work  immediately  on  entering  the  town,  and  before 
the  inhabitants  had  time  to  give  offence.  In  both, 
masses  of  men  were  massacred.  In  both,  machine- 
guns  were  employed;  in  both,  the  wounded  were 
brutally  despatched;  and  in  both,  the  victims  were 
forced  to  cheer  their  persecutors  and  murderers. 
Most  important  of  all,  these  two  events  took  place  si- 
multaneously. They  were  the  work  of  two  different 
bodies  of  troops,  acting  independently.  These  facts  re- 
veal a  careful  pre-arranged  programme  of  frightful- 
ness,  carried  out  precisely  and  according  to  schedule. 

At  Jemappes,  also,  there  was  massacre  foul  and 
unprovoked.  The  Germans  were  pressing  forward 
to  envelop  the  British  forces  at  Mons,  and  to  achieve 
their  object  poured  thousands  of  men  against 
Jemappes.  Their  advance  was  checked  by  210  Brit- 
ish soldiers  who,  under  an  heroic  leader.  Captain 
Ross,  held  back  on  the  canal  a  hundred  times  as  many 
of  the  enemy  until  the  crucial  moment  had  passed. 
Baffled    and    furious,    the    Germans    wreaked    their. 


364        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

vengeance  upon  the  unhappy  village.  The  story 
was  told  to  a  correspondent  of  the  Daily  Tele- 
graph '^^  by  Mrs.  Frankel,  an  English  lady  present 
at  the  engagement.     In  it  she  says : 

*'  It  was  wicked.  The  Germans  rushed  about  in  all  direc- 
tions committing  the  wildest  excesses.  They  broke  into 
houses  and  bayoneted  the  inhabitants,  women  and  children 
as  well.  Then  they  burned  the  houses.  Three  chateaux, 
over  a  hundred  houses,  and  the  beautiful  church  were  all  fired 
with  paraffin.  The  house  in  which  I  was  sheltering  was  set 
fire  to  in  five  places,  and  I  had  a  miraculous  escape  from  death. 
The  inhabitants  had  done  nothing.  The  excuse  given  by  the 
Germans  was  that  they  had  been  fired  on  at  Liege,  and  any- 
how, they  added,  *  The  people  of  Jemappes  helped  the  EngHsh 
to  build  their  trenches.'  " 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Germans  have  com- 
pelled British  prisoners  to  make  trenches  for  them- 
selves, the  latter  plea  will  hardly  carry  conviction. 

Even  could  the  Germans  prove  provocation,  they 
would  not  be  purged  of  the  charge  of  organized  of- 
ficial atrocity.  The  Hague  Convention  forbids  col- 
lective punishment;  international  law  puts  limits  on 
the  right  of  reprisal.  This  rectriction  Germany  has 
hideously  ignored.  She  has  flaunted  her  defiance 
in  the  face  of  the  nations.  In  his  Proclamation  of 
October  5th,  Field-Marshal  von  der  Goltz,  appro- 
priately transferred  to  the  Turkish  Army  at  a  later 
date,  announced  that  in  case  of  damage  to  railway 
lines  and  telegraph  wires,  the  neighbouring  localities 
would  be  — 

"  Punished  without  pity;  it  matters  little  if  they  are  accom- 
plices or  not." 

General  von  Biilow,  in  a  Proclamation  of  August 

I''  April  ist,  1915. 


PROCLAMATIONS  365 

22nd,   complacently  assumed   responsibility  for  the 
massacre  of  Andenne: 

"The  inhabitants  of  Andenne,  after  having  protested 
their  peaceful  intentions,  made  a  surprise  attack  on  our  troops. 
It  was  with  my  consent  that  the  General  had  the  whole  plac. 
burnt  down,  and  about  lOO  people  shot.  I  bring  this  fact 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  town  of  Liege,  so  that  its  inhabitants 
may  know  the  facts  with  which  they  are  threatened,  if  they 
take  up  a  similar  attitude." 

There  are  two  points  to  be  noted  in  this  atrocious 
document.  First,  no  proof  has  ever  been  given  that 
the  people  of  Andenne  attacked  the  Germans  —  in 
fact,  the  evidence  is  all  the  other  way.  Again, 
though  General  von  Biilow  sanctioned  the  murder 
of  "  about  100  people,"  which  was  illegal,  in  fact 
nearly  300  were  slaughtered,  while  400  more  dis- 
appeared into  captivity. 

Could  anything  be  more  ghastly  In  conception  and 
purpose  than  the  Proclamation  Issued  by  the  German 
authorities  at  Rheims?  This  is  the  insult  to  Hu- 
manity which  must  stand  forever  as  a  reflection  on 
German  character: 

"  With  a  view  to  securing  adequately  the  safety  of  the 
troops,  and  to  instil  calm  into  the  population  of  Rheims,  the 
persons  named  below  (81  in  number,  and  including  all  the 
leading  citizens  of  the  town)  have  been  seized  as  hostages  by 
the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  German  Army.  These  hos- 
tages will  be  hanged  at  the  slightest  attempt  at  disorder. 
Also,  the  town  will  be  totally  or  partially  burned,  and  the 
inhabitants  will  be  hanged  for  any  infraction  of  the  above." 

From  what  has  been  said,  then,  it  appears  that,  even 
if  punishment  was  justified,  it  was  hideously  and 
grotesquely  excessive,  while  It  is  clear  that  nowhere 
was  sufficient  inquiry  made.  All  this  serves  to  dis- 
credit the  plea  of  reprisals  and  to  justify  the  charge 


366        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

of  official  organized  atrocity  as  a  method  of  policy; 
and  the  variety  in  invention  of  cruelty  and  terrorism 
would  do  credit  to  professional  murderers  or  the 
authors  of  shilling  shockers  of  crime.  As  early  as 
August  27th,  we  find  General  von  Nicher  demanding 
two  million  francs  in  gold  from  the  Burgomaster  of 
Wavre,  and  another  million  to  be  paid  on  September 
1st  as  a  war  indemnity;  and  concluding  his  demand 
with  these  words: 

"If  these  payments  are  not  made,  the  town  of  Wavre  will 
be  destroyed  and  burnt,  the  innocent  suffering  with  the 
guihy." 

Like  General  von  der  Goltz,  General  Nicher 
makes  no  discrimination.  All  are  to  suffer  alike,  the 
aged  crone,  the  tiny  infant,  the  bed-ridden  ancient, 
the  nuns  in  their  cloisters.  Yet  such  renegades  from 
civilization  have  the  effrontery  to  talk  of  just  re- 
prisals! They  came  prepared  for  the  work  that  lay 
before  them,  provided  with  fuses  and  hand-grenades, 
with  inflammable  tablets  of  nitro-cellulose  glycerine, 
thoughtfully  concocted  by  Professor  Ostwald  of 
Leipzig,  that  light  of  the  German  intellectuals. 
With  Teutonic  thoroughness  the  army  was  equipped 
and  drilled  for  systematic  destruction.  Eye-wit- 
nesses have  testified  to  the  methodical  nature  of  the 
work. 

Had  only  the  prudence  of  the  German  statesmen 
equalled  the  providence  of  the  German  War  Lords! 
There  are  those  who  believe  that  all  this_ horror  and 
misery,  this  welter  of  slaughter,  this  crime  against 
humanity,  this  degradation  of  a  great  nation  would 
never  have  occurred  were  Bismarck,  rough-hearted 
and  relentless  as  he  was,  Chancellor  of  Germany  to- 
day. Would  he,  who  saw  in  England  "  an  old  and 
traditional  ally,"  and  declared  "  the  preservation  of 


THE  NEUTRAL'S  DUTY  367 

Anglo-German  friendship  to  be  the  most  Important 
thing,"  have  menaced  her  with  a  navy,  and  outraged 
her  conscience  by  the  violation  of  Belgium?  Author 
of  many  tragedies,  he  would  certainly  have  shrunk 
from  this,  the  greatest  tragedy  of  all.  Bismarck 
played  for  peace,  but  always  for  safety  also. 

Germany  pleads  the  hostility  of  Belgium  and  the 
exigencies  of  war.  She  has  no  right  to  plead  the 
first,  she  should  be  ashamed  to  plead  the  latter. 
Who  made  Belgium  Germany's  enemy  but  Germany 
herself?  By  common  decency,  as  by  the  law  of  na- 
tions, she  is  estopped  from  regarding  Belgium's  de- 
fence of  her  neutrality  as  the  act  of  an  enemy.  It  Is 
a  remarkable  fact  that  the  only  clauses  of  the  Hague 
Convention  incorporated  In  the  German  Kriegs- 
brauch  deal  with  these  very  points  :  ( i )  that  the 
territory  of  neutral  States  Is  Inviolable;  (2)  that 
belligerents  may  not  move  troops,  or  convoys  of 
munitions  and  supplies  across  neutral  territory;  (3) 
that: 

"  The  fact  of  a  neutral  Power  resisting,  even  by  force,  at- 
tempts to  violate  its  neutrality  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  hostile 
act." 

It  Is  stupefying  that  these  articles  were  adopted  on 
the  motion  of  the  representatives  of  the  German 
Emperor  himself  at  The  Hague. 

It  is,  of  course.  Idle  to  expect  that  Germany,  hav- 
ing broken  Article  i,  should  feel  herself  bound  by 
Article  2.  Having  crossed  the  border,  she  was 
bound  to  fight  her  way  forward;  but  she  was  also 
bound  by  every  honourable  and  humane  obligation 
of  decency  and  honour  —  if  they  can  be  mentioned  in 
such  a  connection  —  to  do  so  with  forbearance,  re- 
membering that  she  alone  was  responsible  for  the 
situation.     It  was  her  duty  to  avoid  doing  .damage 


368        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

as  far  as  possible;  to  be  scrupulous  In  the  observa- 
tion of  the  rights  of  the  inhabitants;  to  Ignore  acci- 
dental and  incidental  breaches  of  strict  military 
usage. 

Even  were  Germany's  invasion  of  Belgium  legiti- 
mate, she  could  not  escape  the  charge  of  ruthless  bar- 
barity. This  Is  not  the  first  time  that  Belgium  has 
been  the  theatre  of  war.  For  centuries  she  has  been 
the  stage  on  which  pitiless  barbarian  commanders  and 
their  heathen  soldiers  have  played  the  grim  drama, 
in  days  when  the  Society  of  Nations  was  unknown, 
when  sack  and  pillage  were  ordinary  incidents  of  war- 
fare. War  had  its  exigencies  then  as  now,  and  com- 
manders construed  them  to  suit  their  convenience, 
unfettered  by  international  law.  All  the  great  cap- 
tains of  eight  centuries  have  fought  on  the  plains  of 
Flanders;  Louvain  and  Malines,  Dinant  and  Ypres, 
have  seen  archers  and  musketeers,  knights  and  free 
companies,  disciplined  armies  and  ravenous  banditti 
come  and  go;  and  the  cities  survived  until  the  Ger- 
man came  in  19 14. 

The  destruction  of  great  buildings,  of  cathedrals, 
such  as  that  of  Rhelms,  of  a  University  like  that  of 
Louvain,  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville  at  Lille,  and  the  Cloth 
Market  at  Ypres,  have  no  parallel  In  the  world. 
Buildings  like  the  Cathedral  at  Rhelms  had  seen  war 
and  the  horrors  of  war  storm  upon  them,  and  pass 
them  by;  leaving  them  unscarred  and  beautiful  still. 
Through  generations  of  turmoil  and  destruction  the 
noble  architectures  of  Europe  have  remained  as 
monuments  to  some  elemental,  spiritual  sense  and 
reverence  In  the  minds  of  past  gladiators  —  Persians, 
Turks,  Goths,  Gauls,  and  CImbri  —  which  prevented 
the  ruin  of  that  which  was  dedicated  to  great  or  holy 
uses.  The  German  armies  of  19 14  spurned  the  prec- 
edents of  history  and  time.     Disturbed  by  the  criti- 


RHEIMS  369 

cism  of  the  world,  they  have,  however,  denied  that 
they  meant  to  destroy  Rhelms  Cathedral;  they  have 
declared  that  it  was  in  the  line  of  the  French  bat- 
teries, and  that  it  had  been  used  by  the  French  troops 
as  an  observatory.  Mr.  Richard  Harding  Davis, 
the  well-known  American  writer  and  war  correspond- 
ent, who  was  present  during  a  portion  of  the  bom- 
bardment, in  an  article  in  Scrihner's  Magazine  of 
January,  19 15,  after  describing  the  destruction  of 
the  Cathedral  as  one  of  the  greatest  crimes  in  his- 
tory, says : 

"  I  asked  the  Abbe  Chinot "  whether  he  had  permitted  the 
French  officers  to  occupj'  the  towers.  ...  He  told  me  most 
vehemently  and  earnestly  that  at  no  time  had  any  officers  been 
permitted  to  make  use  of  the  church  for  military  purposes. 
For  two  nights,  to  protect  the  non-combatants  of  the  city  from 
airships,  he  had  permitted  the  soldiers  to  place  a  search-light 
in  the  tower.  But,  fearing  this  would  be  construed  by  the 
Germans  as  a  hostile  act,  he  had  ordered  the  search-light  to  be 
removed.  And  it  w^as  not  until  five  nights  after  it  had  been 
removed  that  the  Germans  began  to  bombard.  .  .  .  The  other 
excuse  of  the  Germans,  that  the  French  artillery  was  so  placed 
that  to  fire  at  it  without  striking  the  Cathedral  was  impossible, 
is  so  trifling  as  to  be  insolent.  The  Cathedral  was  not  in 
the  line  of  fire  between  the  French  battery  and  the  German 
battery.  It  was  between  the  two  French  batteries."  (He 
adds  that  these  batteries  were  two  miles  from  the  Cathedral 
on  either  side.) 

To  Mr.  Davis'  scathing  indictment,  written  in  De- 
cember, the  Germans  have  pleaded  guilty  by  their 
renewed  bombardment  of  Rheims  in  February,  shat- 
tering the  noble  roof  which  had  withstood  their  for- 
mer onslaught.  Every  motive  of  policy  forbade 
them  to  renew  a  deed  which  had  angered  the  world 
and  served  no  military  purpose;  therefore,  to  sheer 

1'  In  authority  In  the  absence  of  Archbishop  Landreux  at  Rome. 


370        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

savagery  must  be  ascribed  the  crime  from  first  to  last 
Reprisals,  exigencies  of  war !  No  casuistry  will 
ever  convince  the  world  that  the  treatment  of  the 
Invaded  territories  of  Belgium  and  France,  has  not 
been  a  deliberate  official  policy.  By  cowing  the  peo- 
ple at  the  very  beginning,  by  overwhelming  cruelty, 
by  striking  terror  Into  the  minds  of  the  people,  it  was 
hoped  to  bring  the  western  war  to  a  speedy  end,  so 
as  to  leave  the  German  armies  free  to  deal  with  Rus- 
sia. That,  as  is  known,  was  the  German  strategical 
Idea.  The  stubbornness  of  Belgium,  the  stout- 
heartedness of  France,  the  Intervention  of  England 
threatened  to  wreck  the  well-laid  plan.  Then  Ger- 
many resolved  to  achieve  by  the  help  of  terror  what 
she  could  not  gain  by  arms  alone. 

Mr.  Frank  Fox,  a  war  correspondent  of  reputa^ 
tlon,  shows  that  this  official  policy  of  terrorism  was 
deliberately  and  carefully  fitted  In  with  Belgium's 
repeated  refusals  to  compromise  with  her  honour. ^^ 
He  says  that  after  the  destruction  of  Liege,  the  Ger- 
man Government  made,  as  we  all  know,  an  offer  to 
Belgium  that,  having  satisfied  her  sense  of  honour 
by  heroic  resistance,  she  should  allow  the  German 
army  to  pass  through  without  resistance,  and  that 
Belgian  territory  would  not  be  retained  or  annexed, 
but  would  be  evacuated  after  the  war.  It  was  sub- 
sequent to  Belgium's  stern  rejection  of  the  German 
proposal,  that  frightfulness  was  extensively  de- 
veloped, and  the  laws  of  war  and  the  dictates  of  hu- 
manity were  Ignored,  though  already  at  Vise  and 
elsewhere  It  had  been  rigorously  applied. 

Mr.  Fox  observes  that  on  August  19th,  the  Ger- 
man army  occupied  Louvain  peaceably;  that  up  to 
August  25th  there  were  no  outrages;  but  that  on 
August  25  th  a  German  force,  moving  on  Antwerp, 

'^'^  Nineteenth  Century,  January,  1915. 


CALCULATED  CRUELTY  371 

was  defeated,  and  the  outrage  came  on  the  night  of 
the  26th,  with  the  return  of  the  discomfited  war- 
riors to  Louvain.  Mr.  Fox  cogently  argues  that  the 
systematic  sack  of  Louvain  and  the  massacre  of  its 
people  was  not  the  result  of  mere  anger  and  mur- 
derous impulse,  but  — 

"  A  designed  act  of  war,  decided  upon  after  the  defeat  of 
the  24th  of  August,  and  intended  to  warn  Belgium  of  the 
consequences  of  continuing  to  harass  the  German  advance." 

Termonde  and  M alines  were  also  destroyed  ut- 
terly because  the  Belgian  Government  still  persisted 
in  refusing  to  accept  German  occupation  and  the  in- 
vasion of  her  neutrality.  The  resistance  of  Bel- 
gium was  disastrously  interfering  with  Germany's 
advance  upon  France;  it  was  causing  her  to  keep  a 
couple  of  Army  Corps  at  work  to  contain  the  Bel- 
gian army;  so,  to  break  the  spirit  of  the  Belgian  na- 
tion, towns  and  cities  and  villages  were  sacrificed  in 
circumstances  of  horror  and  savagery.  When  it  was 
seen  that  this  policy  of  terrorism  and  murder  pro- 
duced no  effect  save  to  ins-pire  the  Belgians  with 
an  everlasting  heroism,  it  was  not  pursued  in  the 
same  proportion.  Mr.  Fox,  in  writing  of  this,  uses 
the  following  words: 

"  The  incidents  of  beastliness,  the  strange  degenerate  acts 
of  Hastiness  and  sacrilege,  with  which  the  Germans  spiced 
their  ordered  and  deliberate  cruelties,  must  be  set  down  to  the 
account  of  the  tiger  and  the  ape  still  surviving  in  our  human 
nature.  German  officers  and  soldiers  were  not  always  content 
to  kill  out  of  hand  and  to  burn  quickly.  They  had  to  torture 
men  beforehand,  and  to  desecrate  and  insult  beautiful  build- 
ings before  destroying  them." 

That  Is  the  statement  made  by  a  correspondent 
who  was  in  Louvain  and  in  Antwerp  in  the  days  of 
Tvhich  he  writes.     Mr.  Powell,  the  correspondent  of 


372        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

the  New  York  Herald,  summed  the  matter  up  in  his 
interview  with  General  von  Boehn,  the  destroyer  of 
Aerschot.  The  General  defended  his  act  as  one  of 
righteous  retribution. 

"  The  townspeople  only  got  what  they  deserved," 
he  remarked. 

"  But  why  wreak  your  vengeance  on  women  and 
children?"  Mr.  Powell  asked. 

"None  have  been  killed,"  said  the  General  posi- 
tively. 

"  I  myself,"  replied  Mr.  Powell,  "  have  seen  the 
mutilated  bodies.  .  .  .  How  about  the  women  I  saw 
with  the  hands  and  feet  cut  off?  How  about  the 
little  girl,  two  years  old,  shot  in  her  mother's  arms? 
How  about  the  old  man  that  was  hung  from  the  raf- 
ters of  his  house  and  roasted  to  death  by  a  bonfire 
being  built  under  him?  " 

The  disconcerted  General,  then,  we  are  told,  fell 
back  on  the  plea  that  soldiers  sometimes  get  out  of 
hand. 

This  explanation  might  cover  the  act  of  the  sol- 
diers at  Dinant  who  entered  the  National  Bank  and 
shot  the  manager  and  his  son  because  they  refused 
to  open  the  safe;  but  it  cannot  cover  organized  pil- 
lage by  the  German  army.  The  Duke  of  Gronau 
superintended  the  pillage  of  the  Chateau  of  Villiers- 
Notre-Dame,  when  146  plates,  236  enamelled 
spoons,  three  gold  watches,  1,500  bottles  of  wine, 
besides  ducks,  chickens,  linen  and  children's  clothes 
were  removed.  It  is  stated,  in  an  article  on  Ger- 
man atrocities  in  the  special  number  of  the  Field,^^ 
that  Prince  Eitel  Fritz,  son  of  the  War-Lord  himself, 
plundered  a  chateau  near  Liege,  and  sent  the  whole 
of  his   hostess's   wardrobe   to   Germany.     He    has 

13  Quoting    the    article    by    M.    Northomb    in    Revue    des    deux 
Mondes. 


CIVILIANS  AS  SHIELDS  373 

since  received  the  Order  of  Merit.  Following  their 
example,  an  officer  at  Baron,  on  the  Oise,  stole  8,300 
francs  from  the  safe  of  M.  Robert,  a  notary;  while 
another  swaggered  about  the  town  with  nine  women's 
rings  on  his  hands.  Robbing  was  made  easy  by 
order.  At  Luneville,  General  von  Forbender  ac- 
tually issued  to  the  citizens  a  Proclamation  that, 
"  Anyone  who  shall  have  deliberately  hidden  money 
.  .  .  shall  be  shot."  By  the  Hague  Convention 
private  property  must  be  respected,  the  Kriegsbraiich 
denounces  looting  as  burglary;  but  this  product  of 
German  Kiiltur  makes  it  a  capital  offence  for  a  citi- 
zen to  conceal  his  savings  from  German  plunderers. 

There  is,  in  the  German  army,  an  Iron  discipline 
unknown  In  any  other  army  in  the  world;  it  is  the 
boast  of  the  nation.  It  has  been  proved  unbreakable 
on  numberless  stricken  fields.  German  professors 
well-tutored  by  their  masters,  have  declared  that 
German  troops  In  this  war  are  "  not  behaving  with 
indiscipline."  This  Is  precisely  the  case  which  is 
made  against  Germany:  that  the  horrors  of  the  so- 
called  reprisals,  that  the  other  atrocities  committed 
where  there  was  no  question  of  reprisal,  are  not  acts 
of  indiscipline  but  the  application  of  a  deliberate 
policy. 

Let  us  take  a  few  cases.  Contrary  to  law  and 
humanity  civilians  have  been  dragged  into  the  firing 
line  as  a  shield  for  the  soldiers.  It  has  been  done 
by  German  officers  who  have  plumed  themselves  upon 
it.  Thus,  First  Lieutenant  Eberlein,  of  a  Bavarian 
regiment,  recounted  the  following  exploit  with  pride 
in  the  Miinchener  Neueste  Nachrichten.  It  oc- 
curred in  an  action  where  the  Germans  were  holding 
a  village : 

"  I  had  an  excellent  idea.  I  had  three  civilians  arrested 
and  had  them  placed  in  chairs  in  the  middle  of  the  street. 


374        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

They  objected,  but  I  replied  to  their  supplications  with  a  gun- 
butt.  .  .  .  The  fire  directed  at  our  men  at  once  diminished, 
and  my  men  were  thus  masters  of  the  principal  street.  .  .  . 
As  I  learned  later,  the  Bavarian  Reserve  Regiment,  which  was 
on  the  north  side  of  the  town,  made  a  similar  experiment  to 
mine.  Four  civilians,  whom  they  also  placed  on  chairs  in  the 
middle  of  the  street,  were  killed  by  French  bullets.  I  saw 
them  myself  lying  in  the  middle  of  the  street  near  the  hos- 
pital." 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  such  a  thing  being  done  by 
the  offiicer  of  any  civilized  army,  but  to  boast  of  it 
afterwards  bespeaks  a  depravity  apparently  peculiar 
to  Germany  among  Western  nations. 

Again,  take  the  description  of  a  fight  near  Hanon- 
ville,  in  an  article  written  by  Under-Officer  Klemt,  of 
the  154th  Infantry  Regiment,  and  published  in  the 
Jauersches  Tagehlatt,  of  October  i8th,  19 14,  under 
the  title  of  "  A  Day  of  Honour  for  our  Regiment  " : 

"  In  a  small  hollow  we  found  crowds  of  dead  and  wounded 
Frenchmen.  We  gave  no  quarter,  we  smashed  or  transfixed 
the  wounded.  .  .  .  Beside  me  I  heard  a  curious  cracking: 
they  were  blows  of  a  rifle-butt  which  a  soldier  of  the  154th 
was  vigorously  applying  to  the  bald  head  of  a  wounded 
Frenchman ;  for  this  job  he  very  prudently  used  a  French 
rifle,  for  fear  of  breaking  his  own.  Men  of  particularly 
tender  soul  did  the  wounded  French  the  favour  of  finishing 
them  off  with  a  bullet,  but  the  others  took  their  chance  with 
the  stock  or  the  bayonet.  .  .  .  There  the  wounded  were  ly- 
ing, groaning  and  asking  for  quarter.  But  whether  they 
were  slightly  or  severely  wounded,  our  brave  fusiliers  saved 
the  country  the  expense  of  treating  so  many  enemies." 

Only  the  excesses  of  some  bad  men  who  had  got 
out  of  hand,  remark  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemburg  and 
General  von  Boehn !  That  will  not  do  here. 
Klemt's  article  was  "  certified  exact  "  by  his  own  su- 
perior officer,  Lieutenant  De  Niem.     Nor  is  this  an 


BUTCHERING  THE  WOUNDED  375 

isolated  case.  Reservist  Reinhard  Brenneisen,  4th 
Company,  112th  Regiment,  Miilhausen,  records  in 
his  diary,  under  date  of  August  21st,  19 14,  how, 
"  There  came  a  Brigade  Order  that  all  French  sol- 
diers, whether  wounded  or  not,  who  fell  into  our 
hands,  should  be  shot.  No  prisoners  were  to  be 
made." 

If  further  proof  is  needed  of  the  disregard  of  the 
laws  of  war  by  the  German  army,  the  following 
Order  issued  to  the  58th  Brigade,  on  August  26th, 
should  be  noted: 

"  From  to-day  no  prisoners  will  be  taken.  All  prisoners 
will  be  killed.  The  wounded,  whether  armed  or  unarmed, 
will  be  slaughtered.  Even  prisoners  already  collected  in  con- 
voys will  be  killed.  Not  a  single  living  enemy  shall  remain 
behind  us. 

(Signed)   Lieutenant  and  Company  Leader,  Stoy. 
Col.  and  Reg.  Commander,  Neubauer. 
General,   commanding  Brigade,   Stenger." 

The  German  General  Staff  do  not  forbid  the  mur- 
der of  prisoners.     They  may  be  killed  — 

"  In  case  of  overwhelming  necessity,  when  other  means  of 
precaution  do  not  exist,  and  the  existence  of  prisoners  becomes 
a  danger  to  one's  own  existence."  ^* 

Necessity  is  a  truly  Germanic  plea.  Other  nations 
have  had  prisoners  and  found  them  embarrassing. 
More  than  once  the  Boers  were  in  that  plight  in  the 
South  African  War.  They  did  not,  however,  kill 
their  captives;  they  released  them.  But  then,  the 
Boers  of  South  Africa  had  never  drunk  from  the 
beaker  of  German  Kultur.  In  the  true  Prussian 
spirit  the  same  supreme  authority  which  permits  the 
killing  of  prisoners  also  approves  of  "  assassination, 

^■^  The  German  JVar  Book,  by  J.  II.  Morgan,  p.  74. 


376        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Incendiarism  and  robbery,"  to  the  prejudice  of  the 
enemy  when  committed  by  "  third  parties."  In 
other  words,  keep  the  rules  yourself,  if  it  suits  your 
purpose,  but  incite  other  people  to  break  them  and 
you  shall  be  immune  —  the  Junker  and  the  jail-bird 
in  sympathetic  collusion. 

There  is  hardly  a  rule  of  war  which  has  not  been 
broken  by  the  German  armies,  hardly  a  dictate  of 
honour  in  war  which  has  not  been  flouted.  The 
Kriegshrauch  itself  condemns  as  utterly  dishonour- 
able certain  ruses  of  war,  of  which  nevertheless  the 
Germans  have  been  guilty;  among  them  is  the 
"  feigned  surrender  in  order  to  -kill  the  enemy 
who  then  approaches  unsuspiciously."  Numerous 
breaches  of  this  ordinance  could  be  given,  but  one 
must  suffice.  At  Moy,  near  Mons,  a  squadron  of 
the  1 2th  Lancers  charged  157  Germans.  When 
close  up,  the  enemy  dropped  their  arms  and  held  up 
their  hands.  With  much  difficulty,  for  the  pace  was 
fast,  the  Lancers  threw  up  their  weapons  and  man- 
aged to  ride  through  the  enemy's  ranks  without  do- 
ing injury.  Before  they  could  pull  up  the  Germans 
seized  their  rifles  and  opened  fire  on  the  cavalry, 
whose  backs  were  still  turned,  hitting  several  men, 
among  them  the  Colonel.  It  will,  doubtless,  be 
satisfactory  to  the  German  General  Staff  that  not 
one  of  these  ruffians  survived. ^^ 

1^  In  The  Times  of  September  14th,  1914,  an  artillery  officer  de- 
scribes how  tiie  Germans  "  ran  into  one  of  our  regiments  with  some 
of  their  officers  dressed  in  French  uniforms.  They  said,  '  Don't 
fire,  we  are  French,'  and  asked  for  the  CO.  When  he  came  they 
shot  him  dead.  .  .  .  The  Germans  certainly  are  brutes."  "  Never 
again,"  writes  Lieutenant  Edgcumbe  of  the  Duke  of  Cornwall's 
Light  Infantry,  "  shall  I  respect  the  Germans.  They  have  no  idea 
of  honour,  and  there  have  been  many  occasions  of  their  wearing 
French  and  British  uniforms."  Lieutenant  Edgcumbe  spoke  from 
bitter  experience,  for  his  own  battalion  was  badly  cut  up  by 
means  of  this  treacherous  device. 


PILLAGE  AND  WORSE  377 

In  all  this  wretched  story,  perhaps  the  most  revolt- 
ing, as  it  is  the  most  significant,  feature,  is  the  fact 
that  the  ringleaders  were  the  officers.  So  far  from 
trying  to  restrain  their  men,  they  gave  the  cue  and  set 
the  example.  "  It  was  like  a  pack  of  hounds  let 
loose,"  wrote  Gaston  Klein,  a  soldier  of  the  Land- 
sturm,  when  describing  the  sack  of  Louvain;  "  every- 
one did  as  he  liked.  The  officers  led  the  way  and 
gave  good  example."  At  Baron,  two  soldiers  told 
the  notary,  M.  Robert,  that  they  were  hired  by  their 
commanding  officer  to  pillage,  and  received  four 
marks  for  every  piece  of  jewellery  they  brought  him. 
In  one  district  a  German  soldier  brought  i  franc 
8  centimes  to  a  nun,  and  gave  it  to  her  for  her  chari- 
ties. "  I  am  forced  to  pillage,"  he  said,  "  but  I  am 
not  a  robber." 

The  Rectors  and  Professors  of  twenty-two  Ger- 
man Universities  have  issued  an  indignant  protest 
against  the  charge  of  barbarity  against  the  German 
army.  They  have  appealed  to  the  culture  of  their 
race;  it  Is  impossible,  they  declare,  that  these  things 
can  have  been  done,  seeing  that  their  army  — 

"  Comprises  the  whole  nation  from  the  first  to  the  last 
man;  that  it  is  led  by  the  best  of  our  country's  sons." 

Yet,  when  they  have  not  descended  to  theft,  these 
gentlemen  of  Germany,  the  "  best  of  their  coun- 
try's sons,"  by  wanton  destruction,  have  given  a  tang 
to  the  taste  of  victory.  Not  content  with  living  in 
strangers'  houses,  drinking  their  wine  and  purloining 
their  valuables,  they  have  left  these  houses  wrecked 
and  shamefully  defiled.  An  American  gentleman, 
living  in  the  Department  of  the  Oise,  has  described 
his  experiences.'''  When  the  British  came  they  re- 
spected the  American  flag,  and  refrained  from  enter- 

^^  Daily  Tele^'rapli,  December  9th,  1914. 


378        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

ing  the  house.  Next  day  the  Germans  came  and  re- 
mained nine  days.  They  began  by  tearing  down  the 
Stars  and  Stripes,  and  ended  by  wrecking  the  whole 
place.  They  smashed  the  furniture,  tore  hangings 
and  bed-clothes  to  rags,  and  left  everything  "  soaked 
with  blood  and  filth;  they  did  not  leave  clothing, 
shoes,  or  hats  of  over  ten  dollars  value,  belonging 
to  my  wife,  myself,  and  my  eight  servants."  Dresses 
were  slashed  with  knives,  shoes  were  cut  to  pieces, 
the  gardens  were  destroyed,  pumps  were  flung  into 
the  river,  hundreds  of  bottles  of  wine  were  emptied 
and  strewn  about  the  house  and  grounds.  This  was 
the  treatment  "  of  a  peaceful  American  citizen  living 
with  his  paralysed  and  bedridden  wife  in  France." 
The  Chateau  de  Baye  was  occupied  by  a  General 
and  his  Staff  Officers,  among  them  a  "  Highness  " ;  ^'^ 
and  the  Chateau  de  Beaumont  had  the  honour  of 
sheltering  Count  Waldersee  and  Major  Ledebur. 
Yet  the  official  French  report  on  the  atrocities  tells 
us  that  these  places  were  pillaged.  Desks,  strong 
boxes,  and  jewel  cases  were  broken  open  and 
emptied,  and  the  houses  were  left  unfit  for  habita- 
tion. The  "  noble  sons  "  of  modern  Germany  have 
followed  the  policy  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  have 
made  their  enemy's  house  into  dunghills.  The  sick- 
ening history  of  innocent  daughters  of  unwilling  hosts 
of  German  officers  made  to  wait  upon  them  naked 
as  they  ate  and  drank,  and  afterwards  ravished,  will 
have  attention  when  Germany  is  called  upon  to  pay 
the  account  accumulating  against  her.  Across  Eu- 
rope is  written  large  what  Prussianism  means. 

The  picture  of  France  and  Belgium  is  dreadful 
enough,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  picture  of 
Germany  is  not  even  more  poignant.  Here  we  see 
a  great  nation,  justly  proud  of  what  it  has  accom- 

i'^  Declared  by  M.  Northomb  to  be  very  near  the  purple. 


UNCIVILIZED  AGGRESSION  379 

plished,  parading  insistently  its  mental  and  moral  ex- 
cellence, now  fallen  from  its  high  estate,  false  to  its 
professions,  a  traitor  to  the  world,  claiming  to  be 
Man  Civilized  and  proving  to  be  in  war  still  Beast 
Uncivilized.  Much  may  be  pardoned  to  ambition 
and  aggression;  even  wanton  aggression  loses  half 
its  ugliness  if  the  aggressor  fights  fairly.  But  ambi- 
tion and  aggression,  which  break  every  rule  of  man; 
every  law  of  honour  and  humanity  fettering  them; 
which  rely  not  on  valour  but  on  the  fear  that  can 
be  inspired  in  the  helpless  —  these  are  the  crimes 
which  torment  the  world  into  a  long  and  deep  re- 
sentment. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

LIGHTS  AND  LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR 

It  would  not  be  reasonable  or  natural  to  end  this 
book  without  a  brief  survey  of  certain  aspects  of  the 
great  conflict  so  far  as  it  has  gone. 

This  world-war  is  a  purgatorial  passage  through 
which  mankind  is  moving  into  a  new  existence. 
Whatever  be  the  end,  whoever  the  victors,  the  ac- 
tive, peopled,  fighting,  organized  yet  disordered 
world  of  our  knowing,  with  its  arbitrary  boundaries 
and  errant  ambitions  will  never  be  the  same  again. 
Many  of  the  old  landmarks,  political,  social,  eco- 
nomic, will  be  obliterated.  The  old  lamps  will  be 
exchanged  for  new.  After  the  first  bewilderment, 
when  the  war-work  Is  done  and  over,  healthier  and 
saner  policies  and  systems  of  world-government  will 
emerge  from  the  present  traditions  and  conditions. 
The  new  evolution  may  be  swift  and  sudden,  it  may 
be  prolonged  and  gradual;  but  it  is  certain  that  there 
lies  before  us  the  making  of  new  rules  of  interna- 
tional conduct,  and  the  recasting  and  reforging  of 
national  policies  to  march  with  international  responsi- 
bility, so  that  its  activity  may  be  secured  and  its  will 
enforced. 

In  this  there  would  be  nothing  extraordinary. 
The  evolution  of  civilization  has  not  proceeded  in  an 
even  ratio  of  continuous  growth.  It  has  been 
marked  by  long  pauses  and  short  sharp  paroxysms, 
vast  convulsions  followed  by  advances  as  impercep- 
tible as  the  movements  of  a  glacier.  But  the  novelty 
of  this  revolutionary  moment  Is  that  we  are  conscious 

380 


NEW  HORIZONS  381 

of  the  greatness  of  the  impending  change  as  men 
have  not  been  before.  The  actors  and  spectators 
in  the  decisive  scenes  of  the  huge  world-drama  of 
the  Past  never  reaHzed  the  profound  effects  of  their 
efforts  as  we  are  realizing  ours.  They  builded,  or 
destroyed,  better  than  they  knew;  we,  though  we 
may  not  know  precisely  what  we  are  building  to- 
wards, are  at  least  conscious  of  the  magnitude  of  the 
task  and  anxious  that  our  designs  shall  be  wise. 
Wars  there  have  been  which  blotted  out  civilizations, 
but  centuries  passed  before  men  could  measure  their 
importance.  In  the  story  of  Columbus,  we  are  told 
that  his  men  saw  fires  on  the  shore  the  night  before 
they  set  foot  on  the  new  land,  now  the  home  of 
millions  of  our  race.  Men  sat  beside  these  fires  un- 
conscious of  what  was  to  befall  them;  unknowing 
that  within  a  few  hours  their  slow  but  sure  oblitera- 
tion would  begin,  and  their  control  of  a  continent 
pass  to  other  hands.  We  know  to-day  what  the  land- 
ing of  Columbus  in  Hispaniola  meant  for  mankind; 
but  mankind  did  not  know  it  then,  nor  for  many  a 
generation  afterwards. 

We  who  live  now  are  able  to  view  events  in  truer 
perspective  than  those  of  older  times,  and  this  is 
due  not  to  superior  intelligence,  but  to  wider  knowl- 
edge. In  a  real  sense  we  are  all  now  citizens  of  the 
world.  With  the  history  of  most  remote  periods 
opened  to  us  by  modern  research,  by  the  achieve- 
ments of  science  and  the  use  of  electricity,  we  can  bet- 
ter realize  the  fact  that  Europe  is  now  passing 
through  one  of  the  revolutions  of  progress;  that  the 
doors   have  been   flung  open   on  new   horizons. 

Most  theories  of  the  books  and  the  schools,  most 
judgments  of  independent  thinkers,  have  been  de- 
molished by  this  war.  It  intrigues  the  mind  to  note 
that  prophecy  has  been  most  nearly  justified  where 


382        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

the  prophets  had  the  least  to  guide  them,  namely, 
warfare  at  sea.  The  devastating  effect  of  shell-fire, 
the  prowess  of  the  submarine,  the  employment  of 
mines  —  these  have  been  displayed  in  the  contest,  so 
far  as  it  has  gone,  with  singular  fidelity  to  forecast. 
This  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the  factors  in 
the  problem  were  fewer  and  more  susceptible  of 
analysis  by  the  expert. 

It  has  not  been  so  with  the  land-war.  We  all 
knew  that  the  old  methods  and  measures,  that  the 
tactics  of  Waterloo  and  the  Crimea,  were  obsolete; 
that  men  no  longer  fired  on  one  another  at  bow-shot 
distance;  that  the  glow  and  colour,  the  clash  of  music 
and  the  fluttering  of  banners  had  departed  from  the 
batdefield.  We  realized  that  the  modern  battle  was 
invested  with  a  certain  mysterious  invisibility;  that 
men  crawled  to  the  attack  in  scattered  lines,  dull  and 
inconspicuous,  in  uniforms  scientifically  coloured  to 
elude  the  eye:  yet  we  still  imagined  great  spaces 
covered  by  moving  hosts,  great  columns  wheeling 
into  position  and  deploying  for  the  forward  move- 
ment against  distant  enemies.  The  South  African 
War  taught  us  so  much.  We  also  began  to  under- 
stand that  modern  batdes  do  not  necessarily  end  in 
a  day;  that  the  fate  of  a  nation  is  not  decided  on  a 
Sunday  afternoon;  that  even  the  three  days  of  the 
battle  of  Leipzig  might  be  insuflficient  to  decide  the 
Issue.  We  learned  that  lesson  in  Manchuria.  We 
did  not  grasp,  however,  the  astounding  fact  that  a 
battle  may  continue  day  and  night  for  weeks,  and 
even  months,  without  a  decision  being  reached.  It 
may  be  doubted  whether  the  War  Lords  themselves, 
the  men  who  apply  their  powerful  intellects  to  the 
lifelong  study  of  war,  really  foresaw  the  develop- 
ments of  the  present  conflict  in  Eastern  and  Western 
Europe. 


IDEAS  OF  WAR  383 

It  was  perhaps  generally  recognized  that  the 
armies  of  to-day  must  be  very  large;  that  they  would 
be  enormously  greater  than  any  commanded  by  Marl- 
borough or  Napoleon,  than  the  forces  fighting  in 
1870  or  in  any  subsequent  wars.  Yet  one  of  the 
ablest  of  the  laymen  who  wrote  of  war;  one  who, 
more  than  all  others,  has  predicted  the  future,  and 
who  has  to  his  credit  the  most  accurate  forecasts  of 
naval  warfare,  was  emphatic  in  his  view  that  the 
military  future  belonged  to  small  armies  scientifically 
handled.  The  millions  of  Russia,  France  and  Ger- 
many were  so  much  adipose  tissue;  the  military  na- 
tions were  giants,  shaky  at  the  knees,  and  destined  to 
be  knocked  out  by  some  small,  scientific,  enterpris- 
ing and  active  antagonist.  Modern  weapons  and 
contrivances,  he  declared,  were  continually  decreas- 
ing the  number  of  men  who  could  be  efficiently  em- 
ployed upon  any  length  of  front.  He  doubted  if 
there  was  any  use  for  more  than  400,000  men  upon 
the  whole  Franco-Belgian  frontier,  and  believed  that 
this  number  could  hold  the  frontier  against  any  num- 
ber of  assailants. 

This  not  unpopular  theory  has  been  rudely  over- 
thrown. Probably  two  millions  of  men  have  been 
fighting  night  and  day  since  September,  19 14,  upon 
the  Franco-Belgian  frontier.^  The  fact  is,  no  one 
realized  that,  under  modern  conditions,  battles  would 
become  practically  immobile.  The  main  principles 
of  strategy  are,  no  doubt,  much  the  same  now  as 
they  have  ever  been,  but  the  tactics  which  supplement 
and  support  the  strategy  seem  to  be  revolutionized. 
The  400,000  men  on  whom  Mr.  Wells  depended  to 

1  The  forces  enpi;agecl  in  some  of  the  most  famous  battles  of  the 
past  are  as  follows:  —  Liile  Burgas,  1912,  400,000;  Mukiieii,  1905, 
701,000;  Sedan,  1870,  244,000;  (iravelotte,  1870,  301,000;  Sadowa, 
1866,  436,000;   Waterloo,   1815,  217,000;   Leipzig,    1813,  472,000, 


384        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

hold  France  against  the  attack  of  superior  force 
could  obviously  only  do  so  if  they  could  move  swiftly 
and  secretly  from  one  threatened  point  to  another. 
It  was  in  such  manner  that  Napoleon,  in  perhaps  the 
greatest  of  all  his  campaigns  —  that  of  1 8 14  —  kept 
the  allied  armies  at  bay  for  many  weeks.  So  far  as 
speed  of  movement  is  concerned  the  armies  of  to-day 
have  tactical  opportunities  of  which  Napoleon  never 
dreamed.  When  whole  army  corps  can  be  shifted 
from  Antwerp  to  Warsaw  and  back  again  In  a  few 
days,  it  is  a  small  thing  to  fling  fifty  or  sixty  thou- 
sand men  upon  some  vulnerable  or  vital  position, 
say  one  hundred  miles  away. 

But  the  value  of  military  movements  now,  as  al- 
ways, lies  less  in  their  speed  than  in  their  secrecy. 
To  deceive  one's  adversary  was  the  first  object  of 
the  general;  to  penetrate  the  deceptions  was  the  main 
difficulty  of  his  antagonist.  Driving,  one  day,  to 
Strathfieldsaye  with  a  friend,  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton amused  himself  by  guessing  the  nature  of  the 
ground  lying  behind  various  hills.  His  friend  re- 
marked on  the  astonishing  accuracy  of  his  predictions, 
on  which  the  Duke  replied,  "  The  art  of  war  consists 
in  knowing  what  is  on  the  other  side  of  the  hill." 
Napoleon  laid  it  down  that  correct  information  was 
the  most  important  factor  In  securing  victory.  In 
the  day  of  such  great  War  Lords  information  was 
not  easy  to  obtain,  and  commanders  had  to  depend 
largely  on  intuition.  All  that  is  changed;  tactics 
have  been  stripped  of  their  mystery.  The  time- 
honoured  plan  of  leaving  the  camp  fires  burning  while 
the  army  retired  is  of  no  avail  against  scouting  air- 
craft. Flanking  movements  —  that  prime  device 
for  achieving  victory  —  are  made  all  but  Impossible 
when  sky-scouts  can  discern  the  movements  of  men 
and  trains,  twenty,  fifty,   a  hundred,   two   hundred 


AIRCRAFT  AND  TACTICS  385 

miles  behind  the  firing  line.  Turning  movements 
are  instantly  met  by  a  corresponding  transfer  of 
troops  to  the  threatened  point.  So  we  saw  the 
Franco-British  attempt  to  turn  the  German  right 
near  Soissons  resolve  itself  into  a  parallel  develop- 
ment of  the  opposiflg  lines  until  they  reached  the 
North  Sea,  where  further  progress  was  impossible. 
Ensues,  therefore,  the  astonishing  spectacle  of  a  con- 
tinuous battle  line  of  several  hundred  miles,  only 
limited  by  the  fact  that  geographical  and  physical 
reasons  prevent  further  extension.  In  the  Eastern 
theatre  of  war  the  circumstances  are  much  the  same, 
though  the  length  of  the  front  —  from  the  Baltic  to 
the  Danube  —  has  given  more  freedom  of  move- 
ment. It  would  seem  that,  if  the  old  tactical  prin- 
ciples are  to  hold  good  in  future  wars,  continents  not 
countries  will  be  the  stage  of  the  operations. 

But  this  is  not  the  only,  or  perhaps  even  the  most 
surprising  reversal  of  our  military  speculations.  We 
have  more  or  less  clearly  understood  that  war  had 
lost  some  of  its  pageantry;  but  we  did  not  realize 
that  it  had  lost  It  all.  We  knew  that  battles  were 
fought  at  long  range  between  forces  all  striving  for 
Invisibility;  but  we  still  saw  in  the  mind's  eye  a  battle 
as  a  vast  living  picture,  lines  or  masses  of  men  mov- 
ing here  and  there  slowly  or  swiftly;  batteries  whirl- 
ing into  position;  commanders  on  distant  hills  watch- 
ing every  shift  of  the  gusts  of  war;  mounted  orderlies 
desperately  galloping  here  and  there.  Battles  might 
not  have  the  glow  and  colour  of  old  time  —  that  was 
understood;  but  they  were  still  to  be  stirring  scenes 
full  of  motion,  of  life,  of  death. 

How  different  Is  the  reality!  Let  us  leave  the 
base  to  visit  a  modern  battlefield,  wearing  a  cap  of 
darkness,  since  generals  are  wanting  in  hospitality 
for  intruding  and  Inquisitive  civilians. 


386        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

A  broad  plain  teems  with  life  and  movement. 
There  are  tents  and  houses  over  which  waves  the 
Red  Cross  flag;  long  strings  of  motor  omnibuses  and 
wagons  move  along  the  roads;  bivouacs  are  seen 
whence  the  smoke  of  the  kitchens  eddies  upwards; 
regiments,  brigades,  divisions  crawl  along  like  vast 
serpents;  the  sun  shines  on  the  lance-points  of  a 
cavalry  squadron.  Along  the  railways  train  follows 
train  laden  with  freight;  at  the  depots  are  great 
mountains  of  hay  and  straw,  and  hillocks  of  boxes 
branded  with  the  shamrock;  uncouth  mottled  mon- 
sters go  puffing  along  the  line,  like  a  dreadnought  on 
wheels  or  the  grotesque  toy  of  a  schoolroom.  Here 
are  hangars  such  as  can  be  seen  at  Hendon  or  Brook- 
lands;  outside  them  mechanics  are  mending  aero- 
planes, while  the  aviators  stroll  about  waiting  for 
their  turn  on  duty.  Forges  are  blazing,  busy  ham- 
mering goes  on  in  carpenters'  shops;  and  everywhere 
is  the  noise  and  stir  of  men  at  work.  Yet,  save  for 
the  hospitals  and  the  soldiers  and  the  armoured 
trains,  and  a  strange  humming  in  the  air,  no  signs  of 
battle  show.  It  is  a  scene  full  of  Interest  —  and 
disappointment. 

Our  invisible  guide  quickens  our  interest  as  he  mur- 
murs "  Army  Headquarters,"  and  we  search  the 
neighbourhood  to  find  the  place  where  dwells  the 
man  who  holds  our  destiny  in  his  hands.  There  Is 
a  chateau  on  a  neighbouring  hill  —  that  must  be  the 
place.  Not  so.  Commanders-in-Chief  do  not  select 
conspicuous  dwellings,  nor  are  they  anxious  to  let  the 
world  know  their  address.  The  headquarters  are 
down  in  that  little  town  yonder  In  a  small  and  unpre- 
tentious house.  There  are  a  few  motor-cars  in  front, 
dingy  and  weather-beaten,  covered  with  mud  and 
dust;  for  war  is  all  dust  or  mud;  there  Is  no  happy 
medium.     No  gorgeous  staff  lounges  about;  they  are 


BEHIND  THE  FIGHTING  LINE  387 

far  too  busy  inside,  mostly  writing.  Through  the 
windows  comes  the  constant  tap-tap  of  typewriters 
and  the  jingle  of  telephone  bells.  One  can  see  just 
such  a  scene  any  day  in  a  stockbroker's  office  in  Copt- 
hall  Avenue,  save  that  these  clerks  wear  khaki,  and 
that  the  quiet  absorbed  man  in  the  inner  room  is  not 
telephoning  orders  to  buy  or  sell  shares.  So  much 
for  the  pageantry  of  war.  In  the  actual  fighting 
there  is  nothing  spectacular  at  all. 

We  leave  the  headquarters  and  move  on,  guided 
always  by  the  dull  sounds  coming  from  the  firing 
lines.  As  we  get  nearer  the  sound  changes.  It  is 
resolved  into  its  component  parts  —  the  roar  of  the 
heavy  guns  and  howitzers,  the  sharp  crack  of  the 
field  guns,  the  irregular  pip-pip,  pip-pip-pip,  of  the 
mitrailleuse,  the  rifle-fire  like  the  crackling  of  thorns 
aflame.  Through  and  above  the  uproar  is  the  spite- 
ful zip  of  the  rifle  bullets,  varying  from  the  crack 
of  a  stock-whip  to  the  drowsy  drone  of  a  bumble 
bee;  the  whine  of  shrapnel  shell  and  the  rending 
scream  of  large  projectiles.  On  every  side  are 
shapeless  ruins  which  once  were  houses;  columns  of 
smoke  rise  from  stricken  cottages;  in  the  air  small 
fleecy  clouds  of  shell-smoke  form  and  disappear;  and 
here  and  there  in  the  fields  spring  up  masses  of 
smoke,  black,  green,  yellow.  It  is  the  battlefield  at 
last. 

Within  our  range  of  vision  probably  fifty  thousand 
men  are  hurling  death  at  each  other,  but  never  a  man 
is  to  be  seen,  A  few  aeroplanes  circling  overhead 
are  the  only  signs  of  life.  They  seem  like  vultures 
scanning  a  desert  in  search  of  food.  All  our  previ- 
ous ideas  of  battle  as  a  moving  picture  are  shattered. 
A  rabbit-warren  after  the  firing  of  a  shot  is  not  more 
lonely  than  the  space  we  see.  The  battlefield  is  In- 
deed a  rabbit-warren,  for,  as  we  proceed,  we  find  the 


388        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

fields  scarred  with  trenches  and  every  trench  filled 
with  men. 

So  far  as  a  layman  may  judge,  the  result,  as  a 
whole,  has  been  confusion  to  all  pre-war  calculations 
and  expectations.  It  has  for  years  been  an  axiom, 
of  ever-increasing  acceptance,  that  the  days  of  hand- 
to-hand  fighting  were  almost  at  an  end.  A  recent 
and  admirable  little  book  by  a  distinguished  writer 
of  authority,  says  that  though  he  cannot  altogether 
accept  the  theory  that  the  bayonet  is  now  quite  super- 
fluous, he  believes  it  would  be  true  if  infantry  was 
always  plentifully  supplied  with  ammunition;  if  they 
could  always  keep  their  organization  intact,  would 
remain  cool,  and  could  never  be  taken  by  surprise. 
This  makes  a  very  wide  demand  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  a  principle.  Even  in  Its  modified  form 
the  theory  has  already  been  disproved.  Through- 
out the  war  the  bayonet  has  played  a  vital  part.  It 
was  so  even  in  the  first  days  when  the  armies  were 
still  in  constant  motion  and  before  the  period  of  en- 
trenchment had  begun.  As  the  campaign  developed 
on  settled  lines  the  bayonet  showed  that  It  had  once 
more  come  into  its  own. 

The  very  causes  which  it  was  thought  would  make 
fighting  at  close  quarters  impossible  In  this  war  have 
combined  to  make  it  necessary.  Against  modern 
shell  and  rifle  fire  such  cover  as  the  surface-ground 
provides  becomes  Increasingly  Inadequate.  Aero- 
planes search  out  the  positions  and  indicate  the  ranges 
with  deadly  precision.  Advance  In  the  open  Is  only 
possible  In  very  loose  formation,  and,  even  if  the 
men  get  within  charging  distance,  they  can  bring  no 
weight  of  numbers  to  bear  upon  the  enemy.  When 
it  is  attempted  by  frontal  attacks  in  close  order,  by 
which  weight  alone  can  tell  sufficiently,  the  punish- 
ment is  terrific,  as  German  efforts  have  shown. 


TRIUMPH  OF  THE  BAYONET  389 

Even  rifle-fire  at  the  close  range  of  fifty  yards  Is 
reduced  to  a  minimum.  Now  and  then  it  may  break 
out  in  a  gusty  squall,  as  when  a  British  soldier  kindly 
tells  the  neighbouring  Germans  of  the  loss  of  a  ship, 
and  is  called  a  liar  for  his  pains;  or  when  some 
French  wags  tantalize  their  hungry  foemen  by  trail- 
ing sardine  tins  between  the  trenches;  but  the  real 
business  is  done  under  the  dim  stars  with  the  bay- 
onet and  the  kukhri  and  the  hand-grenade.  It  is  a 
revelation  to  be  told  of  midnight  raids  by  stealthy 
Gurkhas,  of  trenches  taken  and  retaken  with  the  cold 
steel;  and  to  think  how  often  we  have  been  assured 
that  future  battles  would  be  decided  entirely  by  sci- 
entific tactics  at  long  distances.  As  a  fact,  science 
has  destroyed  tactics;  great  weapons  of  precision 
have  in  a  sense  and  in  certain  conditions  defeated 
their  own  purpose;  and  there  has  been  a  reversion 
to  a  more  primitive  epoch  when  battles  were  decided 
by  the  stoutness  of  heart  and  strength  of  arms  of 
individual  men. 

Time  was,  not  so  very  .long  ago,  when  it  was 
thought  that  the  human  element  was  to  be  eliminated 
from  war;  that  men  were  to  be  assimilated  to  the 
machines  which  were  at  once  their  instruments  and 
masters;  that  the  soldier  would  become  a  marching- 
machine,  a  digging-machine,  a  firing-machine.  At 
this  the  Prussian  militarists  aimed;  their  training 
made  for  it;  but  the  system  has  had  the  effect  of 
brutalizing  the  individual,  whose  personal  freedom 
and  initiative  still  has  its  chance  in  the  aftermath  of 
a  fight,  when  man  becomes  the  machine,  bloody,  mer- 
ciless, a  monster  killing  for  the  sake  of  killing. 

The  German  war-makers,  so  long  immured  in  their 
laboratories  of  death,  drunken  with  calculations, 
must  realize  at  last  that  their  pawns  are  not  made  of 
ivory;   that  actual  battles   are  not  merely  scientific 


390        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

problems  to  be  worked  out  by  rule,  but  have  their 
intense,  if  elusive,  psychology.  It  is  a  happy  thing 
for  us  to-day  that  France  and  England  did  not  fall 
into  the  form  of  error  which  has  controlled  Junker- 
dom;  that  some  saving  grace  —  perhaps  the  demo- 
cratic principle  working  through  our  own  war-sys- 
tems —  made  them  realize  that  the  pawns  were  made 
of  flesh  and  blood;  that  they  were  men  and  not  ma- 
chines, not  mad  mastodons  of  Kiiltur. 

And  such  men !  Let  it  be  set  down  in  the  credit- 
balance  of  this  war  —  so  small  in  discernible  good, 
unless  it  be  found  in  the  stand  taken  against  the 
obdurate,  the  malevolent  mercenaries  who  would  de- 
stroy the  world's  peace  for  that  gain  which  is  got 
by  the  sword  —  that  it  has  restored  our  faith  in  the 
virility  of  man.  Of  late  years  there  has  been  in- 
deed terribly  much  to  make  us  doubt  it.  To  all 
appearance  the  world  had  grown  over-refined  —  not 
with  the  refinement  of  high  thought  and  high  en- 
deavour, but  with  the  finesse  of  being  and  doing  in 
its  more  exhausting  forms  of  soft-living;  of  love  of 
pleasant  things;  of  delicate  nerves;  of  slackness  in 
hard  duty;  of  self-indulgence;  of  delight  in  morbid 
literature,  and  of  a  sickly  and  "  precious  "  intel- 
lectuality varied  by  outbursts  of  hysteria  even  more 
depressing  in  what  it  boded.  One  of  its  worst  signs 
was  the  attitude  of  many  pacifists  of  the  sentimental 
kind  who  were  more  decadent  than  pacific;  who 
would  insist  that  because  England  had  had  no  really 
great  war  since  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, she  would  have  her  luck  still,  and  that  luck 
would  see  us  through  our  time.  We  were  to  let 
things  slide  —  the  old  laissez-allez  policy,  and  all 
would  come  right  for  us.  These  were  not  actively 
anti-national  people,  but  weak  wanton  folk  who  are 


DECADENCE  391 

the  very  curse  of  the  democracy  of  which  they  think 
themselves  the  ornament. 

The  Kaiser  was  ls:een  enough  to  see  the  danger  of 
all  this  kind  of  thing,  and  many  years  ago  he  set 
his  face  against  the  softer  virtues;  against  the  gentler 
living  and  feehng  which  belonged  to  Southern  Ger- 
many, to  the  Germany  which  loved  Goethe  and 
Schiller  and  Lessing;  lest  the  humaneness  and  kind- 
liness of  it  should,  with  prosperity,  become  lassitude, 
natural  inertia  and  "  the  weak  backs  of  a  nation  of 
^yerthers."  He  had  his  cure  —  the  good  old  Prus- 
sian cure;  brutality  to  be  called  robustness;  strong 
drink  to  be  called  naturalness;  vice  to  be  called 
vigour;  lasciviousness  to  be  called  the  body  primi- 
tive; and  savagery  to  be  called  strength.  In  his 
acknowledged*  ambition  to  make  Berlin  the  heart  of 
a  "  healthy  animalism,"  he  knew  that  his  Prussian 
would  not  disappoint  him.  He  would  see  his  Berlin 
a  capital  of  Corinthian  irregularities  and  rough, 
stout,  hard,  coarse-living  humanity;  whereby  an  ex- 
ample should  be  set  to  the  rest  of  Germany  which 
he  was  Prussianizing  in  other  ways,  restoring  the 
ancient_  reputation  of  Prussia.  Duelling  should  be 
kept  alive  and  encouraged,  the  supremacy  of  the  sol- 
dier who  represented  Force  should  be  established 
socially,  civically  and  nationally;  physical  dominance 
should  be  the  set  criterion,  and  the  man  of  the  clank- 
ing heel  should  be  the  cynosure  of  all  eyes,  the  cap- 
tain of  all  hearts.  William  did  not  labour  in  vain. 
He  produced  his  superman,  his  magnificent  blond 
beast,  as  Nietzsche  had  told  him  to  do:  and  we  have 
seen  him  at  work  on  his  path  of  frightfulness  and 
ghastly  inhumanity. 

Without  the  aid  of  such  desperate  antidotes  to  the 
poison  of  softness,  however,  the  men  of  the  more 


392        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

western  nations,  and  the  Muscovite  also,  have 
emerged  from  the  dangers  of  a  period  of  too  ripe 
living,  cool,  calm,  virile,  unboasting  in  success  and 
undismayed  by  failure;  laying  aside  their  internal 
feuds,  putting  away  their  luxuries,  forgetting  their 
fads,  and  facing  primal  realities;  men  going  out  to 
die  v/ith  a  smile,  women  with  tearless  eyes  bidding 
them  go  forth  to  do  their  duty. 

So,  for  England  and  her  allies  it  was  only  a  veneer 
of  decadence  after  all.  Beneath  it  lay  the  old  qual- 
ities which  have  led  mankind  up  the  long  slopes  of 
progress,  strong,  hard,  rough  if  you  like,  but  touched 
ever  by  a  greatness  of  soul  which  impelled  them  to 
great  purposes  in  the  day  of  trial.  Russia  has  ban- 
ished vodka,  France  has  prohibited  absinthe,  Eng- 
land has  prayed  her  men  not  in  vain  to  be  sober  in 
the  field  of  war;  but  the  trail  of  the  German  in  this 
war  has  been  marked  by  bottles  sacked  from  civilian 
cellars,  while  chateaux  have  been  made  into  bodegas, 
and  cottages  into  brothels  and  shebeens. 

There  have,  of  course,  been  exceptions  to  the  pic- 
ture here  drawn  of  British  men  in  this  day  of  war. 
There  is  the  sentimental  theorist,  living  in  a  universe 
of  his  own  imagining,  unable  to  recognize  the  rough 
facts  of  the  actual  world,  he  who  thinks  Utopia,  like 
Venus,  will  rise  from  a  sea  of  Parliamentary  resolu- 
tions. There  is  the  political  Thersites,  who  grubs 
for  his  livelihood  in  a  midden  of  journalistic  gar- 
bage, whose  irresponsibility  easily  becomes  disloy- 
alty. There  is  the  intellectual  mountebank,  the  su- 
perman of  egotism,  who  achieves  the  notoriety, 
which  he  mistakes  for  fame  and  on  which  he  relies 
for  subsistence,  by  belittling  every  aspiration  and 
deriding  every  virtue;  who  expends  his  ingenious 
talent  in  devising  new  tricks  that  may  serve  to  keep 


THE  SCUM  ON  THE  POT  393 

him  in  the  glare  of  the  footlights.  There  are  the 
slaves  of  gain  who  make  ignoble  profit  by  supplying 
the  enemy  with  the  means  to  destroy  their  fellow- 
countrymen  ;  there  are  alas !  men  who  still  put  their 
appetites  before  their  duty;  there  are  degenerates 
here  and  there  who  satisfy  their  patriotism  by  watch- 
ing other  men  doing  what  they  will  not  do  themselves. 
There  is  the  scum  on  every  pot  that  boils;  and  it  is 
only  when  it  boils  that  the  scum  is  discovered. 

It  is  not  the  least  of  the  things  to  be  set  to  the 
credit-balance  that  we  are  finding  out  the  real  nature 
of  things  which,  in  peace-time,  eluded  analysis.  We 
are  eliminating  the  dross  from  the  true  metal;  and 
we  may  take  heart  in  seeing  how  great  is  the  pro- 
portion of  the  gold  to  the  dross.  Europe  to-day 
bears  thousands  of  scars  witnessing  to  man's  brutal- 
ity, but  she  exhibits  millions  of  monuments  to  the 
majesty  of  men.  Not  far  back  in  our  memory  an 
Ingenious  and  very  able  writer  declared  that  modern 
science  was  making  war  impossible.  In  the  terror 
of  modern  inventiveness  he  .saw  the  dawn  of  uni- 
versal peace.  Militarism  was  defeating  its  own 
ends;  there  would  be  no  more  fighting,  because  flesh 
and  blood  could  not  endure  against  the  new  engines 
of  war.  Since  M.  Bloch  wrote,  new  terrors  have 
sprung  from  the  arsenals.  Guns  have  been  invented 
before  which  the  stoutest  fortresses  shrivel  into  fiery 
dust;  shells  destroy  men  in  platoons,  blow  them  to 
pieces,  bury  them  alive;  death  pours  from  the  clouds 
and  spouts  upward  through  the  sea;  motor-power 
hurls  armies  of  men  on  points  of  attack  in  masses 
never  hitherto  employed,  concealment  is  made  well- 
nigh  impossible.  These  things,  however,  have  but 
made  war  more  difficult  and  dreadful;  they  have  not 
made  it  impossible.     They  have  only  succeeded  in 


394        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

plumbing  profounder  depths  of  human  courage,  and 
evoking  higher  quahties  of  endurance  than  have  ever 
been  seen  before. 

The  torch  of  valour  has  been  passed  from  one 
brave  hand  to  another  down  the  centuries,  to  be  held 
to-day  by  the  most  valiant  in  the  long  line  of  heroes. 
Deeds  have  been  done  in  Europe  since  August,  19 14, 
which  rival  the  most  stirring  feats  sung  by  Homer 
or  Virgil,  by  the  Minnesingers  of  Germany,  by  the 
troubadours  of  Provence,  or  told  in  the  Norse  sagas 
or  Celtic  ballads.  No  exploit  of  Ajax  or  Achilles 
excels  that  of  the  Russian  Cossack,  wounded  in 
eleven  places  and  slaying  as  many  foes.  The  trio 
that  held  the  bridge  against  Lars  Porsena  and  his 
cohorts  have  been  equalled  by  the  three  men  of  Bat- 
tery L,  fighting  their  single  gim  in  the  grey  and 
deathly  dawn  until  the  enemy's  battery  was  silenced. 
Private  Wilson,  who,  single-handed,  killed  seven  of 
the  enemy  and  captured  a  gun,  sold  newspapers  in 
private  life ;  but  he  need  not  fear  comparison  with 
any  of  his  ancient  and  radiant  line.  Who  that  cares 
for  courage  can  forget  that  Frenchman,  forced  to 
march  in  front  of  a  German  battalion  stealing  to 
surprise  his  countrymen  at  the  bridge  of  Three  Griet- 
chen,  near  Ypres.  To  speak  meant  death  for  him- 
self, to  be  silent  meant  death  for  his  comrades;  and 
still  the  sentry  gave  no  alarm.  So  he  gave  it  him- 
self. "Fire!  For  the  love  of  God,  fire!  "  he  cried, 
his  soul  alive  with  sacrifice;  and  so  died.  The  an- 
cient hero  of  romance,  who  gathered  to  his  own  heart 
the  lance-heads  of  the  foe  that  a  gap  might  be  made 
in  their  phalanx,  did  no  more  than  that.  Nelson 
conveniently  forgot  his  blind  eye  at  Copenhagen, 
and  even  in  this  he  has  his  followers  still.  Bombar- 
dier Havelock  was  wounded  in  the  thigh  by  frag- 
ments of  shell.     He  had  his  wound  dressed  at  the 


THE  HEROIC  LINE  395 

ambulance  and  was  ordered  to  hospital.  Instead  of 
obeying,  he  returned  to  his  battery,  to  be  wounded 
again  in  the  back  within  five  minutes.  Once  more 
he  was  patched  up  by  the  doctor  and  sent  to  hospital, 
this  time  in  charge  of  an  orderly.  He  escaped  from 
his  guardian,  went  back  to  fight,  and  was  wounded 
for  the  third  time.  Afraid  to  face  the  angry  sur- 
geon, he  lay  all  day  beside  the  gun.  That  night  he 
was  reprimanded  by  his  officers  —  and  received  the 
V.C. !  Also  there  are  the  airmen,  day  after  day 
facing  appalling  dangers  In  their  frail,  bullet-torn 
craft.  Was  there  ever  a  stouter  heart  than  that  of 
the  aviator,  wounded  to  death  and  still  planing  down- 
wards, to  be  found  seated  In  his  place  and  grasping 
the  controls,  stone-dead?  Few  eyes  were  dry  that 
read  the  almost  mystic  story  of  that  son  of  France 
who,  struck  blind  In  a  storm  of  fire,  still  navigated 
his  machine,  obedient  to  the  Instructions  of  his  mili- 
tary companion  himself  mortally  wounded  by  shrap- 
nel and  dying  even  as  earth  was  reached. 

There  Is  no  need  to  worship  the  past  with  a  too 
abject  devotion,  whatever  In  the  way  of  glory  It  has 
been  to  us  and  done  for  us.  Chandos  and  Du  Gues- 
clin,  Leonidas  and  De  Bussy  have  worthy  compeers 
to-day.  Beside  them  may  stand  Lance-Corporal 
O'Leary,  the  Irish  peasant's  son.  Of  his  own  deed 
he  merely  says  that  he  led  some  men  to  an  Important 
position,  and  took  It  from  the  Huns,  "  Killing  some 
of  their  gunners  and  taking  a  few  prisoners."  His- 
tory will  tell  the  tale  otherwise :  how  this  modest 
soldier,  outstripping  his  eager  comrades,  coolly  se- 
lected a  machine-gun  for  attack,  and  killed  the  five 
men  tending  it  before  they  could  slew  round;  how 
he  then  sped  onwards  alone  to  another  barricade, 
which  he  captured,  after  killing  three  of  the  enemy, 
and  making  prisoners  of  two  more.     Even  official- 


396        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

ism  burst  its  bonds  for  a  moment  as  It  records  the 
deed: 

"  Lance-Corporal  O'Leary  thus  practically  captured  the 
enemy's  position  by  himself,  and  prevented  the  rest  of  the 
attacking  party  from  being  fired  on." 

The  epic  of  Lieutenant  Leach  and  Sergeant  Ho- 
gan,  who  volunteered  to  recapture  a  trench  taken  by 
the  Germans,  after  two  failures  of  their  comrades, 
is  reading  to  give  one  at  once  a  gulp  In  the  throat 
and  a  song  in  the  heart.  With  consummate  daring 
they  undertook  the  venture;  with  irresistible  skill 
they  succeeded;  killing  eight  of  the  enemy,  wounding 
two,  and  taking  sixteen  prisoners.  In  the  words  of 
the  veteran  of  Waterloo,  "  It  was  as  good  fighting 
as  Boney  himself  would  have  made  a  man  a  gineral 
for." 

There  are  isolated  incidents  of  this  kind  in  every 
war;  but  in  a  thousand  different  places  in  France 
and  Belgium  the  dauntless,  nonchalant  valour  of 
Irishmen,  Englishmen,  Scotsmen  and  Welshmen 
have  shown  themselves.  Did  ever  the  gay  Gordons 
do  a  gayer  or  more  gallant  thing  than  was  done  on 
the  29th  of  September,  19 14,  on  the  western  front? 
Thirty  gunners  of  a  British  field  battery  had  just 
been  killed  or  wounded.  Thirty  others  were  or- 
dered to  take  their  place.  They  knew  that  they 
were  going  to  certain  death,  and  they  went  with  a 
cheery  "  Good-bye,  you  fellows !  "  to  their  comrades 
of  the  reserve.  Two  minutes  later  every  man  had 
fallen,  and  another  thirty  stepped  to  the  front  with 
the  same  farewell,  smoking  their  cigarettes  as  they 
went  out  to  die  —  like  that  "  very  gallant  gentle- 
man," Gates,  who  went  forth  from  Scott's  tent  Into 
the  blizzard  and  Immortality.  Englishmen  can  lift 
up  their  heads  with  pride,  human  nature  can  take 


EPICS  397 

heart  and  salute  the  future  with  hope,  when  the 
Charge  of  the  Five  Hundred  at  Gheluvelt  is  re- 
called. There,  on  the  Ypres  road  to  Calais,  2,400 
British  soldiers  —  Scots  Guards,  South  Wales  Bor- 
derers and  the  Welsh  and  Queen's  Regiments  — 
held  up  24,000  Germans  in  a  position  terribly  ex- 
posed. On  that  glorious  and  bloody  day  the  Wor- 
cesters,  500  strong,  charged  the  hordes  of  Germans, 
twenty  times  their  number,  through  the  streets  of 
Gheluvelt  and  up  and  beyond  to  the  very  trenches 
of  the  foe;  and  in  the  end  the  ravishers  of  Belgium, 
under  the  stress  and  storm  of  their  valour,  turned 
and  fled.  On  that  day  300  out  of  500  of  the  Wor- 
cesters  failed  to  answer  the  Roll  Call  when  the  fight 
was  over,  and  out  of  2,400  only  800  lived  of  all  the 
remnants  of  regiments  engaged;  but  the  road  to 
Calais  was  blocked  against  the  Huns;  and  it  remains 
so  even  to  this  day.  Who  shall  say  that  greatness 
of  soul  is  not  the  possession  of  the  modern  world? 
Did  men  die  better  in  the  days  before  the  Caesars? 

Not  any  one  branch  of  the  service,  not  any  one 
class  of  man  alone  have  done  these  deeds  of  valour; 
but  in  the  splendid  democracy  of  heroism  the  colonel 
and  the  private,  the  corporal  and  the  lieutenant  — 
one  was  going  to  say,  have  thrown  away,  but  no ! 
—  have  offered  up  their  lives  on  the  altars  of  sacri- 
fice heedless  of  all  save  that  duty  must  be  done. 

But  greater  than  such  deeds,  of  which  there  have 
been  inspiring  hundreds,  is  the  patient  endurance 
shown  by  men  whose  world  has  narrowed  down  to 
that  little  corner  of  a  great  war  which  they  are  fight- 
ing for  their  country.  To  fight  on  night  and  day  in 
the  trenches,  under  avalanches  of  murdering  metal 
and  storms  of  rending  shrapnel,  calls  for  higher 
qualities  than  those  short  sharp  gusts  of  conflict 
which  in  former  days  were  called  battles.     Then  men 


398        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

faced  death  in  the  open,  weapon  In  hand,  cheered  by- 
colour  and  music  and  the  personal  contest,  man  upon 
man  outright,  greatly  daring  for  a  few  sharp  hours. 
Now  all  the  pageantry  is  gone;  the  fight  rages  with- 
out ceasing;  men  must  eat  and  sleep  in  the  line  of 
fire ;  death  and  mutilation  ravage  over  them  even 
while  they  rest.  Nerves  have  given  way,  men  have 
gone  mad  under  this  prolonged  strain,  and  the  marvel 
is  that  any  have  borne  it;  yet  they  have  not  only 
borne  it,  they  have  triumphed  over  it.  These  have 
known  the  exaltation  of  stripping  life  of  its  impedi- 
menta to  do  a  thing  set  for  them  to  do;  giving  up 
all  for  an  idea.  The  great  obsession  is  on  them; 
they  are  swayed  and  possessed  by  something  greater 
than  themselves;  they  live  in  an  atmosphere  which, 
breathing,  inflames  them  to  the  utmost  of  their  being. 

There  was  a  corner  in  the  British  lines  where  men 
had  fought  for  days  until  the  place  was  a  shambles; 
where  food  could  only  rarely  reach  them;  where 
they  stood  up  to  their  knees  in  mud  and  water,  where 
men  endured,  but  where  Death  was  the  companion 
of  their  fortitude.  Yet  after  a  lull  in  the  firing  there 
came  from  some  point  in  the  battered  trench  the  new 
British  battle-cry,  "Are  we  downhearted  I  "  And 
then,  as  we  are  told,  one  bloodstained  spectre  feebly 
raised  himself  above  the  broken  parapet,  shouted 
"  No!  "  and  fell  back  dead.  There  spoke  a  spirit 
of  high  endurance,  of  a  shining  defiance,  of  a  cour- 
age which  wants  no  pity,  which  exults  as  it  wends 
its  way  hence. 

We  are  indeed  learning  new  lessons  In  human  na- 
ture; and  we  have  needed  them.  We  have  never 
fully  gauged  its  illimitable  capacity  for  expansion 
until  now,  when  we  have  seen  it  measured  against 
the  giant  engines  and  leviathan  forces  of  modern 


THE  HIGHEST  TEST  399 

war.  Stage  by  stage,  as  the  art  of  destruction  has 
developed  and  the  perils  of  warfare  have  increased, 
human  nature  has  shown  itself  able  to  adapt  itself 
to  the  new  conditions,  however  staggering  the  test. 
M.  Bloch  argued  his  case  on  well-established  prem- 
ises. It  had  become  a  military  axiom  that  even  the 
best  and  most  disciplined  troops  could  not  be  ex- 
pected to  endure  more  than  a  certain  percentage  of 
slaughter.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  placed  the 
limit  at  about  thirty  per  cent;  and  that  was  a  high 
figure  compared  with  the  casualties  in  even  the  great- 
est battles  of  the  last  two  centuries.  In  the  Amer- 
ican Civil  War  there  were  only  a  few  battles  where 
regiments  lost  as  much  as  seventy  per  cent,  of  their 
strength,  and  the  world  was  shocked  by  the  slaugh- 
ter. Such  losses  have  become  almost  commonplace 
in  this  war.  There  have  been  stories  of  German 
regiments  reduced  from  three  thousand  men  to  as 
many  hundreds.  Our  own  losses,  of  which  we  can 
speak  with  greater  certainty,  have  sometimes  been 
as  great:  as  in  the  record  of  a  certain  British  regi- 
ment which,  at  Mons,  had  only  eighty  men  left  un- 
wounded  out  of  one  thousand.  These  eighty  men, 
with  some  others  who  were  cured  of  their  wounds, 
were  sent  to  another  battalion  of  the  same  regiment 
which  itself,  later,  lost  eighty  per  cent,  of  its  strength. 
The  survivors  again  became  the  nucleus  of  a  new 
battalion,  which  was  fighting  in  Northern  France  at 
the  beginning  of  the  year.  In  it  were  men  who  had 
gone  through  all  the  fighting  from  Mons  to  the  Yser, 
and  whose  cool  courage  fails  not  yet.  One  of  these 
men  wounded  and  in  hospital  said  to  a  friendly  en- 
quirer, "  I  was  at  Mongs,  I  done  a  bit  up  along  o' 
Wipers  (Ypres)  and  if  it  'adn't  bin  for  this" — he 
lifted  his  wounded  arm  — "  I'd  a'  got  over  to  Liegee 


400        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

(Liege)  p'r'aps,  an'  'ad  a  look  raoundf  "  O  happy 
warrior,  who  has  so  many  comrades  of  his  own 
thinking ! 

The  punishment  which  our  regiments  stand  with- 
out flinching  is  amazing,  especially  if  we  contrast  the 
personnel  of  the  armies  of  to-day  with  those  tough 
customers  that  fought  under  Marlborough,  Fred- 
erick the  Great  or  Napoleon;  if  we  consider  how 
much  larger  a  proportion  of  our  soldiers  is  now  re- 
cruited from  the  cities.  It  has  long  been  held  that 
the  man  of  the  countryside  makes  the  better  soldier, 
in  that  he  is  the  most  inured  to  hardship  and  the 
least  gifted  with  imagination  —  imagination  is  held 
in  wide  suspicion  in  the  British  Isles.  Its  super- 
abundant presence  in  the  Celt  and  the  Gaul,  though 
It  made  for  surprising  elan  when  things  were  going 
well,  was  supposed  to  make  those  fine  fighting  men 
less  valuable  in  moments  of  trouble  and  retreat.  We 
were  constantly  told  to  look  to  the  patient  Moujik 
or  the  stolid  Turk  for  proof  that  lack  of  education 
was  less  hurtful  than  excess  of  imagination.  Yet 
we  find  the  city-bred  soldiers  of  Britain,  France,  and 
Germany  also,  as  enduring  of  hardship  and  as  tena- 
cious of  purpose  as  the  country-bred  soldiers  of  Aus- 
tria, Russia  and  Serbia.  It  is  unfortunately  true  that 
excessive  centralization  in  England  has  reduced  the 
physique  of  all  too  great  numbers  below  the  military 
standard;  but  in  those  who  reach  it,  there  is  not 
only  no  sign  that  capacity  for  soldiering  has  grown 
less,  but  there  is  abundant  evidence  to  show  that  it 
is  greater. 

It  is  no  disrespect  to  other  nations  to  say  that  the 
world  has  never  seen  anything  quite  like  the  Tommy 
Atkins  of  to-day,  so  resourceful,  so  intelligent,  so 
careless  of  danger,  so  reliable  and  exact,  and  withal 
so  good-humoured.     Yet  not  too  much  must  be  said 


TOMMY  ATKINS  401 

in  his  praise;  for,  unconscious  of  any  extraordinary 
merit,  he  dislikes  and  distrusts  the  frontal  attack  of 
the  eulogist.  If  you  have  bouquets  to  present  to 
him  you  must  approach  him  on  the  quarter.  ^  Per- 
sonally he  is  a  modest  man,  professionally  he  is  the 
proudest  man  on  earth.  Letters  of  his  have  been 
published  by  the  hundred,  and  they  may  be  read  in 
vain  for  boastful  account  of  any  exploit  of  his  own. 
He  Is  not  reticent,  however,  when  his  regiment  Is 
mentioned  in  orders;  nor  Is  he  backward  in  express- 
ing his  view  that  the  British  army  is  "  a  clinker."  _ 

It  is  not  his  fellow-countrymen  alone  who  praise 
the  British  soldier.  He  has  been  extolled^  in  the 
highest  terms  by  our  Allies  who  fight  beside  him.  A 
Russian  officer  speaks  of  his  coolness,  his  dogged- 
ness,  his  constitutional  incapacity  to  submit  to  defeat. 
There  Is  good  support  of  this  opinion  In  the  official 
despatches  themselves  which  tell,  for  Instance,  of 
five  thousand  men  holding  off  a  force  of  over  eighty 
thousand  for  several  days.  Through  that  stubborn 
valour,  acknowledged  by  all  .the  world,  including  the 
enemy  also,  runs  a  vein  of  gaiety  which  has  made 
the  French  describe  the  British  soldiers  as  "  cheerful 
devils  " ;  together  with  a  curious  unsentimental  gen- 
tleness, the  natural  product  of  kindly  good-humour 
and  unspoiled  nature. 

"  I  thought  I  had  a  heart  of  stone,"  wrote  home  a 
soldier,  "but  I  cried  my  heart  out  all  night."  At 
what?  At  the  sight  of  a  little  girl  dying.  Yet  he 
had  seen  hundreds  die,  had  himself  slain  men  without 
a  pang,  and  could  make  a  dry  jest  or  loosen  a  shaft 
of  Irony  In  his  own  naive,  primitive  way.  In  appalling 
scenes  of  horror.  He  may  have  been  one  of  those 
who  roared  with  laughter  when  a  comrade  sat  on  a 
shell  which  exploded  and  tore  his  nether  garments 
to  ribbons. 


402        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

Tommy  Atkins  is  perhaps  unique  in  this,  that  to 
him  everything  is  a  great  game,  in  other  words,  a 
thing  of  contest  and  of  skill.  "  This  show,"  he  and 
his  officers  call  some  stern  and  even  gruesome  battle- 
piece  from  which  the  actors  disappear  in  blood  and 
flame.  He  feels  deeply,  but  he  "  takes  shame  "^  to 
show  his  feelings.  He  is  a  patriot,  but  his  patriotism 
seldom  finds  vent  in  words.  It  was  a  splendid  thing, 
as  those  who  beheld  it  have  told  us,  to  see  a  German 
column,  predestined  to  destruction  by  its  antiquated 
formation,  rolling  majestically  to  attack  and  singing 
their  great  battle-hymn,  "  Deutschland  iiber  Alles." 
Brave  battle-songs  were  sung  by  the  men  of  North 
and  South  in  the  American  Civil  War.  Tommy  At- 
kins, however,  will  have  none  of  these ;  it  savours  too 
much  of  "  Miss  Nancy."  So  he  marches  to  the  lilt 
of  "  Tipperary,"  and  charges  as  if  going  into  a  foot- 
ball scrimmage,  shouting  "  Keep  your  eye  on  the 
ball."  He  is  an  odd  mixture:  fierce  yet  friendly, 
crafty  yet  simple;  remorseless  in  action,  yet  bearing 
no  illwill  to  his  foes.  It  would  be  incredible  that  a 
British  General  should  try  to  stir  him  to  action  by 
circulating  a  "  Song  of  Hate."  Were  he  to  do  so 
he  would  be  regarded  with  an  alien  eye.  Tommy 
Atkins'  shrewd  and  observant  sense  is  strangely 
acute,  grimly  amusing,  and  dramatically  effective;  it 
is  artless  yet  full  of  art.  Perhaps  the  best  epitome 
of  modern  battle  with  its  artillery  terrors  Is  to  be 
found  in  this  tense,  elliptic  description  of  a  wounded 
fighter;  "First  you  'ears  a  'ell  of  a  noise -— and 
then  the  nurse  says,  '  Try  and  drink  a  little  o'  this  ' !  " 

One  of  the  most  characteristic  bits  of  humour  of 
the  class  from  which  Tommy  Atkins  and  Jack  Tar 
come,  is  to  be  found  in  a  letter  of  a  bold  and  bonny 
gunner  on  one  of  the  British  warships  which  fought 


PLAYING  THE  GAME  403 

and  sank  the  German  ships  at  Heligoland.  A 
printed  copy  of  this  letter,  once  in  the  author's  pos- 
session, has  disappeared,  but  a  sentence  which  is  the 
occasion  of  the  reference  Is  a  fixed  memory.  The 
sailorman  graphically  and  simply  describes  thefight, 
as  though  making  a  brief  business  report;  without 
brag,  without  mock  modesty,  and  in  a  spirit  of  com- 
fortable satisfaction.  After  giving  the  details  of 
the  preparations,  the  fighting,  and  the  rescue  of  the 
German  sailors;  after  reporting  It  all  as  would  a 
police-court  reporter  used  to  gruesome  scenes:  the 
ship  going  down,  the  struggle  of  the  Germans  in  the 
water,  shot  at  by  their  own  officers,  he  suddenly 
wound  up  by  saying,  "  We  cleared  up  what  we  could 
see  —  and  back  to  lunch  at  one  o'clock!  " 

Good,  gallant,  human,  well-disciplined  Jack  Tar, 
the  child  of  nature,  of  firm  friendly  discipline,  and 
of  his  country;  all  he  wants  Is  a  first-class  ship  and 
the  enemy  in  front  of  him,  and  he  stands  where  Nel- 
son stood,  and  does  as  Nelson  did  In  his  own  modern 
way.  And  how  well  his  officer  knows  him !  They 
are  both  of  a  piece.  That  officer  of  one  of  the  ships 
which  sank  the  Gneiscnau,  the  Scharnhorst,  the  Leip- 
zig and  the  Number^  knew  what  he  was  doing  when, 
being  told  that  the  enemy  was  in  sight,  coolly  ordered 
breakfast  for  the  men  and  a  pipe  afterwards;  and 
then  opened  fire  with  a  "  cool-headed  lot  _"  upon  the 
foe  and  sunk  him.  It  is  a  companion-piece  to  the 
story  of  the  commander's  valet  who,  opening  the  door 
of  his  master's  cabin,  said,  "  Enemy  ships  sighted, 
sir.  Will  you  have  your  bath  before  or  after  ac- 
tion? "  Are  they  not  pretty  pendants  to  the  story  of 
Drake  and  the  game  of  bowls  at  Plymouth? 

One  of  the  best  portraits  lately  painted  of  Tommy 
Atkins  is  to  be  found  in  a  January  issue  of  the  Uyst- 
minsler  Gazette.     It  Is  taken  from  a  letter  written 


404        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

to  his  relatives  by  a  young  Territorial  serving  in 
France.  The  passage  is  as  graphic  in  its  phrases 
as  it  is  faithful  in  observation: 

"  They  are  men,  unpolished  in  the  smootn,  self-deception 
of  the  would-be-genteel,  heavy  of  hand  but  big  of  heart,  who 
do  a  kindness,  and  answer  thanks  with  a  mild  cuss,  and  who 
will  walk  through  Hell  to  help  a  '  pal '  and  curse  him  for  a 
blank  nuisance  whilst  they  do  it.  Here,  if  a  man  makes  a 
mistake,  and  throws  out  of  gear  a  convoy,  say,  the  rest  of  the 
convoy  will  inform  him  in  no  uncertain  manner,  what  partic- 
ular brand  of  idiot  he  is,  his  probable  parentage  and  his  abso- 
lutely certain  destination  after  this  mortal  life,  but  in  the 
same  breath  they  will  get  him  out  of  his  trouble  and  put  him 
into  line  again.  Who  will  laugh  at  and  jeer  unmercifully  at 
a  man  whose  horse  has  thrown  him,  and  whilst  they  laugh  will 
catch  his  horse  and  set  him  thereon  and  tell  him  not  to  be 
such  a  blankety  idiot  again.  In  the  various  grades  of  life  in 
which  I  have  mingled  I  have  never  met  this  spirit  before,  and 
I  shall  have  some  painful  surprises  when  peace  is  declared  and 
I  become  once  more  a  private  citizen." 

Is  our  soldier  of  to-day  a  new  product,  or  is  he  the 
same  man  as  his  ancestors  of  the  Napoleonic  wars 
and  the  men  who  fought  at  Minden?  It  is  safe  to 
say  that  in  character  he  is  the  same;  he  has  only 
changed  in  externals.  He  is,  however,  more  intel- 
ligent, more  alert,  perhaps  more  critical,  not  to  say 
shyly  cynical,  almost  certainly  more  gentle.  It  is 
doubtful  if  he  could  do  the  ugly  work  of  Badajoz 
and  St.  Sebastian;  but  in  all  that  goes  to  the  making 
of  a  man  he  has  shown  himself  the  equal  of  all  his 
naval  ancestors.  The  historian  of  the  future,  when 
he  tells  the  story  of  Mons  and  the  Marne,  the 
Yser  and  the  Aisne,  will  be  able  to  say  with  Napier, 
"  And  then  was  seen  with  what  majesty  the  British 
soldier  fights." 

But  when  we  praise  our  British  soldiers,  we  re- 
member also  that  bravery  is  not  a  monopoly  of  our 


GREAT  CAPTAINS  405 

own.  It  has  been  greatly  shown  by  men  of  every 
race  in  this  war,  and  in  a  rare  degree  by  the  men  of 
those  small  nationalities  hated  and  despised  by  mod- 
ern Germany.  Friend  and  foe,  those  who  have 
done  the  wrong  and  those  who  are  fighting  for  the 
right,  have  proved  that  the  race  of  men  have  tough 
fibre  still,  holding  on  to  life  and  the  enemy  with  equal 
tenacity. 

Great  figures  too,  on  the  upper  levels,  have 
emerged  from  the  fog  of  war,  great  generals  who 
will  stand  beside  the  famous  captains  of  the  past  — 
Joffre  and  French  and  the  Archduke  Nicholas,  and 
one  who  takes  his  place  in  the  Valhalla  of  very  per- 
fect Knights,  the  King  of  tortured  Belgium,  the  man 
who  has  lost  everything  save  his  own  indomitable 
soul. 

One  other  thing  still' this  war  has  done  which  must 
be  passed  to  the  credit-balance.  Many  of  the  arti- 
ficialities of  existence  have  vanished  like  moving 
mists;  barriers  of  class  have  been  lowered;  the  ran- 
cours of  creeds  and  parties  have  been  laid  aside; 
we  are,  for  the  hour,  back  again  in  an  age  when  all 
were  for  the  State.  The  Jewish  Rabbi  holds  the 
crucifix  to  the  lips  of  the  dying  Christian;  Catholic 
cure  and  Protestant  parson  pray  side  by  side  above 
the  common  open  grave;  France  in  her  agony  turns 
to  the  Church,  and  religion  once  more  ministers  to 
the  State.  The  democratic  orator  apologizes  for  his 
tirades  against  the  idle  rich,  the  rich  abjure  frivolity, 
and  level  down  their  way  of  living  that  they  may 
better  help  the  poor.  Old  grievances  of  employer 
and  employed  lose  their  stark  insistence^  and  acute- 
ness  in  the  knowledge  that  work  to-day  is  work  for 
the  Motherland. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  not  all  of  this  can  be 
permanent.  When  the  war  is  over,  normal  life  will 
resume  its  ancient  course  of  individual  ambition  and 


4o6        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

the  selfish  quest  for  profit  and  pleasure ;  but  a  great 
lesson  of  selflessness  has  been  taught  us,  and  some 
of  it  will  find  its  way  into  the  nation's  life  for  its 
eternal  good.  All  too  soon  again,  there  will  come 
the  clash  of  parties  and  the  jar  of  interests,  and 
some  estrangement  of  classes  too;  but  the  things  we 
are  learning  will  be  burned  into  us  who  have  seen 
and  known  them,  too  deep  ever  quite  to  be  forgotten; 
and  for  many  a  year,  may  be,  for  many  a  genera- 
tion, estrangement  between  the  many  sections  of  the 
one  people  which  we  have  proved  ourselves  to  be, 
will  be  less  than  it  has  ever  been.  We  have  seen 
what  we  have  seen,  and  our  world  of  life  and  action 
will  never  be  the  same  again. 

"  O  woe  is  me,  to  have  seen  what  I  have  seen,  see  what 
I  see!" 

Yet  a  greater  work  than  we  have  ever  done,  a 
bigger  thing  than  we  have  ever  known,  lies  before 
the  people  of  this  Empire.  Reconstruction,  rehabili- 
tation on  an  enormous  scale,  and  under  wholly 
changed  conditions  of  the  national  life,  will  call  for 
all  the  capacities  and  activities  of  which  we  are 
capable.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  lived  in  these 
days  of  the  giant  things;  it  will  be  a  greater  still,  to 
those  of  us  who  are  spared,  to  live  on  to  face  the 
giant  tasks  of  to-morrow. 

Among  those  tasks  for  which  the  British  Empire 
will  be  immediately  responsible  is  the  organization 
and  consolidation  of  the  forces  and  powers  which 
this  war  has  made  manifest  throughout  the  King's 
Dominions.  This  struggle  has  taught  the  world  that 
the  British  Empire  is  a  reality;  that  wherever  the 
Flag  flies  the  spirit  of  responsibility  for  the  well- 
being  of  all  exists  and  manifests  itself  in  the  hour  of 
danger  as  in  the  days  of  peace.     All  the  separate 


WHEN  THE  DAY  BREAKS  407 

States  of  the  Empire  have  gathered  themselves  to- 
gether for  one  definite  effort  and  task  —  the  preser- 
vation of  the  British  position  in  the  world;  and  the 
destruction  of  a  military  ambition  which  would,  by 
the  sword,  over-rule  the  universe  and  impose  the 
policies  and  ideals  of  one  country  on  all  the  rest. 
But  when  this  war  is  over  and  done,  and  our  task 
accomplished,  there  will  remain  great  problems 
which  gravely  concern  the  future  activities  and  pros- 
perity of  the  Empire.  Being  successful,  we  shall 
face  the  fact  that  vast  new  territories  —  probably 
New  Guinea,  Samoa,  the  Marshall  Islands,  the  Cam- 
eroons.  Southwest  Africa  and  East  Africa,  together 
with  Egypt  and  Cyprus  —  may  be  added  to  our  great 
colonial  dominions.  It  'is  impossible  to  think  that, 
with  the  lessons  taught  us  by  this  war,  the  experi- 
ments made,  and  the  experience  gained  in  co-opera- 
tion for  Imperial  purposes  before  the  war,  the  vari- 
ous national  constitutions  throughout  the  Empire  will 
not  be  brought  into  closer  relation  for  a  common 
purpose. 

Among  the  millions  of  British  men  fighting  in  this 
war  there  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  soldiers  from 
the  Oversea  Dominions  —  civilians,  doing  military 
duty  in  a  voluntary  spirit,  and  with  an  understand- 
ing of  the  immediate  great  issue.  All  of  these  will 
have  new  conceptions  of  Imperial  responsibility, 
while  those  who  in  their  home-lands  watch  their  ac- 
tivities will  have  learnt  the  great  lesson  that  organ- 
ization is  absolutely  indispensable,  if  we  are  to  get 
the  most  and  the  best  out  of  our  reciprocal  support. 
But  also  they  will  have  learnt  that  we  must  not  again 
as  an  Empire  face  the  possibility  of  a  surprise  by  an 
ambitious  military  power  seeking  to  expand  itself 
by  the  rape  of  other  people's  territories. 

The  spirit  of  organization  of  our  vast  military  and 


4o8        THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 

naval  experience  which  has  had  ample  scope  in  this 
war,  and  has  suffered  from  extemporization  — • 
though  skilful  and  wonderful  extemporization  — 
will  find  an  opportunity  without  parallel,  as  it  will 
face  a  stern  duty  such  as  it  has  never  faced  before. 
That  stern  duty  will  be  to  see  that  the  Empire  shall 
have  no  "  ramshackle  "  elements;  that  it  shall  have 
found  Itself;  that  Its  many  parts  shall  be  adjusted 
to  fit  into  a  common  scheme  of  defence  and  com- 
merce, and  of  reciprocal  commercial  development. 

However  victoriously  Great  Britain  and  the  Over- 
sea Dominions  emerge  from  this  war,  it  will  be  with 
the  sense  of  a  new  and  a  grave  responsibility;  for  we 
shall  have  one  quarter  of  the  world,  with  our  Flag 
planted  in  every  corner  of  it,  and  our  civilization 
working  in  all  the  seas.  We  shall  be  immense  in 
potential  force  as  in  actual  power;  but  we  shall  be 
faced  by  financial  burdens  greater  than  we  have  ever 
known,  and  those  burdens  will  have  to  be  shared  by 
every  individual  In  our  wide-spread  communities  in 
one  way  or  the  other.  For  many  years  some  loyal 
men  have  laboured  to  make  the  individuals  of  this 
Empire  understand  the  responsibilities  attached  to 
Imperial  power.  This  war  has  enforced  that  teach- 
ing, which,  however,  has  not  yet  reached  and  pos- 
sessed all  men  everywhere  under  our  flag.  The  few 
who  taught  must  now  be  the  many.  Also  a  Spartan 
spirit  must  be  preached  and  practised,  and  men  must 
realize  that  to  acquire  wealth  merely  to  enjoy  luxury, 
though  it  may  serve  some  material  interests  of  the 
nation,  may  be  in  effect  unpatriotic,  if  not  anti-na- 
tional. We  shall  need  to  cultivate  national  economy 
in  its  highest  sense ;  we  shall  require  to  study  more 
than  we  have  ever  done  the  value  of  things  that  mat- 
ter: but  if  the  individual  sees  the  need  and  feels  the 
duty  the  nation  will  not  fail. 


APPENDICES 


CHRONOLOGY    OF    GERMAN    HISTORY   AND    POLICY 
SINCE  1862 

I. —  FIRST  PERIOD 

The  formation  of  the  German  Empire.     1862-1871 

1862  Bismarck  becomes  Prussian  Minister-President. 

1864  Austria  and  Prussia  make  war  on  Denmark  and  be- 

come joint  rulers  of  Schleswig,  Holstein,  and  Lauen- 
burg. 

1866  The  Seven  Weeks'  War  between  Prussia  and  Austria. 

Prussian  hegemony. 

1867  Foundation  of  North  German  Confederation. 

1870-1         Franco-German  War,  South  German  States  join  Prus- 
sia. 

1871  William,   King  of  Prussia,   proclaimed   German   Em- 

peror at  Versailles  (Jan.  i8th).  Bismarck  first 
Chancellor. 

II. —  SECOND   PERIOD 

Interior  organization  of  Empire  and  the  consolidation  of  its  position 
as  a  Great  Power  in  Europe.     1871-1890 

1872  League  of  the  Three  Emperors  (William,  Franz-Josef, 

and   Alexander   II). 
1879  Alliance  with   Austria. 

1883  Italy  joins  this  —  The  Triple  Alliance. 

1884  Secret    Treaty    with    Russia    (never    completely    pub- 

lished). 

1888  Death  of  Emperors  William  I  and  Frederick  III.     Ac- 

cession of  William  II. 

1890  Bismarck's  resignation. 

III. —  THIRD  PERIOD 

Germany's  active  policy  in  promoting  ambition  to  become  a  Great 

Power  beyond  the  bounds  of  Europe.    Roughly  since  1890 
1  1884  Foundation  of   German  S.W,  Africa,  Togoland,  Ger- 

man Cameroons. 

1  The  first  two  entries  of  Period  III  belong  chronologically  to  Period  II, 
but  philosophically  to  Period   III. 

409 


4IO  APPENDIX  I 

1885  Foundation    of    German    E.    Africa,    German    New 

Guinea  (Kaiser  Wilhelmsland),  Bismarck  Archipel- 
ago. 

1890-4  Chancellorsliip  of  Von  Caprivl:  relatively  greater  im- 
portance of  Emperor. 

1890  Secret  Treaty  of  1884  with  Russia  not  renewed. 

1894-1900  Chancellorship  of  Von  Hohenlohe. 

1896  Kruger  telegram. 

1897  Navy  Programme,  fixing  permanent  Navy  and  placing 

Naval  Budget  to  a  great  extent  out  of  Reichstag's 
control. 

1898  Kiao  Chou  created  a  German  Protectorate. 

1899  Purchase  of  the  Caroline,  Marianne,  and  Pelew  Islands 

by  Germany  from  Spain  on  conclusion  of  the  Span- 
ish-American War. 

1899-1900  By    arrangement    with    Great    Britain    and    U.    8.    A., 
Germany  obtains  two  largest  Samoa  Islands. 
[I1899-1902  Boer  War.] 

1900-9         Chancellorship  of  Prince  Biilow. 

1900  Second  Navy  Programme,  nearly  doubling  permanent 

Navy. 
1903-4         Germany  seeks  entente  with  Russia  —  ended  by  Russo- 
Japanese  War. 
[1904  Anglo-French  Entente^ 

1905  Kaiser's  visit  to  Tangier. 
1905-6         Third  Navy  Programme. 

1906  Conference  of  Algeciras. 
[1907             Anglo-Russian  Agreement.] 

1908  Fourth  Navy  Programme. 

1908-9  Bosnian  crisis,  ending  in  annexation  of  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina  by  Austria  in  spite  of  Russian  protest. 

1909  Bethmann-Hollweg  becomes  Chancellor. 
19U  Agadir  crisis. 

[1913  Turkish  and  Balkan  War.] 

Fifth  Navy  Programme. 
1913  Increase   of   Army    (to   counterbalance   weakening   of 

Turkey  and  to  meet  requirements  of  approaching 
war). 

1  Certain  dates  bearing  only  indirectly  on  German  Policy,  are  enclosed  in 
square  brackets. 


APPENDIX  II  411 


II 


THE   HAGUE   CONVENTION    OF   OCTOBER    i8th,   1907, 
SIGNED   BY    GERMANY,   PROVIDES   AS    FOLLOWS: 

Art.  2. —  The  inhabitants  of  an  unoccupied  territory,  who,  on  the 
enemy's  approach,  rise  spontaneously  in  arms  in  order  to  fight  the 
invading  troops,  without  having  had  time  to  organize  themselves 
according  to  Art.  i,  shall  be  considered  as  combatants  if  they  carry 
their  arms  openly  and  respect  the  laws  and  uses  of  war. 

Art.  3. —  The  armed  forces  of  the  contending  parties  may  be  com- 
posed of  combatants  and  non-combatants.  In  the  case  of  capture 
by  the  enemy,  both  have  the  right  to  be  treated  as  prisoners  of  war. 
Art.  4. —  The  prisoners  of  war  are  under  the  power  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  enemy,  but  not  of  the  individuals  or  groups  who 
have  taken  them. 

They  must  be  treated  with  humanity. 

Everything  belonging  to  them  personally,  with  the  exception  of 
arms,  horses,  and  military  papers,  remains  their  own  property. 

Art.  22. —  The  right  of  the  combatants,  concerning  the  ways  of 
injuring  the  enemy,  are  not  without  limits. 

Art.  23. —  Besides  the  prohibitions  settled  by  special  conventions, 
it  is  particularly  forbidden: 

(a)   To  use  poison  or  poisoned  weapons; 

\b)  To  kill  or  wound  treacherously  men  belonging  to  the  ad- 
verse army  or  nation; 
(f)   To  kill   or  wound   an   enemy  "who,  having  laid   down  his 
arms  or  having  no  means  of  defence,  has  surrendered  un- 
conditionally ; 
{d)  To  declare  that  no  quarter  will  be  given. 
{e)  To  use  arms,  missiles,  or  material  which  may  cause  un- 
necessary harm; 
(/)   To  use  unduly  the  flag  of  truce,  the  national  flag,  or  the 
military  badges  and  uniform  of  the  enemy,  as  well  as  the 
distinctive  marks  of  the  Geneva  Convention ; 
{g)  To  destroy  or  seize  the  property  of  the  enemy,  except  in 
the  cases  when  that  seizure  or  destruction  should  be  im- 
periously required  by  the  necessities  of  war; 
(/;)   To   declare  extinct,   suspended   or   void   in   law  the   rights 
and  legal  actions  of  the  citizens  of  the  adverse  country. 
It  is  likewise  forbidden  to  compel  the  citizens  of  the  adverse  party 
to  take  a  part  in  the  operations  of  war  waged   against  tlieir  own 
country,  even  if  they  had  been  in  the  service  of  the  enemy  before  the 
beginning  of  the  war. 

Art.   25. —  It   is   forbidden   to   attack  or   bombard   by   any   means 


412  APPENDIX  III 

whatever,  towns,  villages,  houses,  or  buildings  which  are  unde- 
fended. 

Art.  27. —  In  cases  of  sieges  and  bombardments,  all  necessary  steps 
must  be  taken  to  spare  as  much  as  possible  all  buildings  used  for 
sacred  worship,  arts,  sciences,  and  public  relief;  historic  buildings, 
hospitals,  places  where  the  wounded  and  the  sick  are  gathered, 
provided  those  buildings  are  not  used  at  the  same  time  for  any 
military  purpose. 

Art.  28. —  It  is  forbidden  to  pillage  a  town  or  place,  even  after  it 
has  been  taken  by  storm. 

Art.  $0. —  No  collective  penalty,  either  as  a  fine  or  otherwise, 
can  be  required  from  the  populations  on  account  of  individual  acts, 
for  which  they  could  not  be  considered  responsible  as  a  whole. 

Art.  51. —  No  tax  shall  be  levied,  except  according  to  a  written 
order  from  a  general  in  command  and  on  his  own  responsibility. 

It  will  be  collected,  as  much  as  possible,  according  to  the  rules 
for  the  assessment  of  the  existing  taxes. 

The  tax-payer  shall  be  given  a  receipt  for  any  money  paid. 

Art.  53. —  The  army  occupying  a  territory  shall  be  allowed  to 
seize  only  the  money,  funds,  and  valuables  belonging  exclusively  to 
the  State,  the  magazines  of  arms,  means  of  transport,  provisions, 
and  generally  all  personal  property  of  the  State,  which  can  be  used 
for  the  operations  of  war. 

Ill 

KUNDMACHUNG 

TRANSLATION   OF  THE  PROCLAMATION  WHICH 

APPEARED  IN  THE  TRANSVAAL  LEADER  ON 

WEDNESDAY,   JULY   29TH,    1914. 

German  Partial  Mobilization: 

Notice 

In  Austria-Hungary  a  partial  mobilization  .  .  .  has  been  ordered 

by  his  Majesty. 

Those  liable  to  service  who  in  consequence  of  this  notification 
have  to  appear  will  be  informed  by  a  card  summoning  them. 
Those  who  are  summoned  will  receive  travelling  expenses. 
Those  who  are  summoned,  and  who  have  not  the  necessary  means 
for  travelling  at  their  disposal,  are  required  in  order  to  obtain 
travelling  expenses  to  announce  themselves  at  the  nearest  repre- 
sentative of  his  Royal  and  Imperial  Majesty  and  produce  the  card 
summoning  them. 

The  others  will  receive  travelling  expenses  as  an  additional  pay- 
ment to  their  other  expenses. 

Those  who  are  summoned  whose  dwelling  place  is  nearer  the 
boundary  of  the  monarchy  (invasion  station)  than  the  office  of  the 


APPENDIX  III  413 

nearest  representative  of  his  Royal  and  Imperial  Highness  are  re- 
quired to  go  direct  to  the  invasion  station. 

E.  D 

(illegible) 
{At  the  Court  and  State  Printing  IVorks.) 

Kundmachunq. 

'In  {5.siiTr«Mch-tJn{»aptt  vvupdc.'<oii  Spin«p  Alajeslai  erne  ^ihveise 

T)ie|eniVt*ii  Dffnst^jfUfhffgen.   vfAt'hn  aus  dicsem  Anlnjise  einzu- 
ru<-J<fn  hahen    »vprriefl  ^icyon  dupch  EinlM^niftinsfSkiti  fro  yrrslandlpl 

^po  EinhprurenPB  wepdOT  diei  R(»rse'ios'«*n  ypffuJot 

Ziir  Erfolpurip  dcff  BeLsekostfiolK'ilrages  halien  *»cb'  j«ia  Em- 
bcrufcnpn.  welche  Qi<':hi  flber  die  erfopderlichen  KeisemitlpJ  yepfijgpn, 
uoJep  Vtfrwci.t  der  EinhePcfuDj^rtiirl**  hei  der  nacbsfjrcltjrw)*'"  ^  <»  k  ' 
VVriiTftungsb^hrtpde  10  roclden 

TVn  ubMppn  IJitibefuTnufn  rvcrdeo  die  Roi!>ek«sli'.i»  narh  dfn 
Ijc.'in'bpndi'ij  VerffutungssStsep  oachlrSglicb  ausbtwWt. 


Einberuft'Be.  deren 'W'ohnat*  d«r  Mosarebiejn'PW*'  CEinbmcb- 
4«-drtni»)nSbep  jrekifen  jst.  als  dem  Amtssrtze  der  nacbsl^eJefrencn 
t  0  i  VepU'ciungsbchoPde.  haben  .Mcb  Uirek*  ift  die  'BnbpuchstatioB 


4»tB  t  «.  »->  — -igifniiil— 


414  APPENDIX  IV 

IV 

STATEMENT  BY  HERR  BALLIN 

While  the  final  proofs  of  this  book  were  passing  through  the 
press,  Herr  Ballin,  the  head  of  the  Hamburg-Amerika  Steamship 
Company,  and  a  close  friend  of  the  Kaiser,  made  a  statement  to 
Mr.  von  Wiegand  for  publication  in  America.  Herr  Ballin  had 
just  returned  from  the  front,  where  he  had  a  long  audience  with 
the  Emperor,  whose  views  of  the  war  he  was  authorized  to  make 
public.  Having  said  that  the  Kaiser  had  declared  that  he  did  not 
want  this  war,  Herr  Ballin  was  asked:  "Who  then  does  the  Em- 
peror consider  responsible  for  the  war?"  His  reply  was  as  fol- 
lows: 

"  We  all  feel  that  this  war  has  been  brought  about  by  England. 
We  honestly  believe  that  Sir  Edward  Grey  could  have  stopped  it. 
"If,  on  the  first  day,  he  had  declared  'England  refuses  to  go 
to  war  because  of  the  internal  questions  between  Serbia  and  Aus- 
tria,' then  Russia  and  France  would  have  found  a  way  to  com- 
promise with  Austria. 

"  If,  on  the  other  hand.  Sir  Edward  Grey  had  said  England 
was  ready  to  go  to  war,  then,  for  the  sake  of  Germany,  probably 
Austria  might  have  been  more  ready  to  compromise. 

"But,  by  leaving  his  attitude  uncertain  and  letting  us  under- 
stand that  he  was  not  bound  to  go  to  war.  Sir  Edward  Grey  cer- 
tainly brought  about  the  war.  If  he  had  decided  at  once,  one 
way  or  the  other,  Sir  Edward  Grey  could  have  avoided  this  ter- 
rible thing." 

In  August,  1914,  Herr  Ballin  held  different  views.  He  wrote  a 
letter  to  the  London  Times,  dated  August  2nd,  with  the  object  of 
having  it  published  on  August  3rd,  the  morning  of  the  day  on  which 
Sir  Edward  Grey  was  to  make  his  momentous  speech  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  The  Times  held  the  letter  back.  Late  on  the  night 
of  August  3rd  The  Times,  by  accident,  received  a  telegram  ad- 
dressed to  the  London  agent  of  the  Wolff  Press  Bureau,  the  Ger- 
man official  telegraph  agency.  It  ran  thus:  "Times  is  publishing 
Ballin's  statement  on  the  situation.  Please  telegraph  it  word  for 
word    (signed)    Wolff  Bureau." 

In  that  statement,  published  in  The  Times  of  August  12th,  Herr 
Ballin  lays  the  responsibility  for  the  war,  not  on  England,  but  on 
Russia. 

"  Everything  has  been  wrecked  upon  the  attitude  of  Russia. 
...  It  must  be  stated  again;  Russia  alone  forces  the  war  upon 
Europe.  Russia  alone  must  carry  the  full  weight  of  responsi- 
bility." 

The  conflict  between  these  statements  is,  therefore,  singularly 
impressive.  On  one  day  it  is  Russia,  on  the  next  it  is  England 
which  is  accused  of  having  caused  the  war.  Both  cannot  be  true. 
The  conscience  of  Germany  must  be  uneasy  when,  to  demonstrate 
her  innocence,  she  makes  two  charges  of  guilt  which  are  mutually 
destructive. 

For  the  full  text  of  Herr  Ballin's  statement  to  Mr.  von  Wiegand 
see  the  New  York  World,  April  14th,  1915.  See  a.'so  London 
Times,  August  12th,  1914  and  April  15th,  1915. 


INDEX 


Aerschot,  74,  159,  325.  357.  359. 

372. 
Agadir,  132,  182,   186. 
Agram,  153,  304. 
Aguila,   354. 
Aircraft  in  War,  386-8. 
Albania,   134,  303,  305. 
Albert,    King    of    the    Belgians, 

197,  220,  228,  242,  405. 
Alexander  the  Great,  3. 
Algeciras,  14,   182. 
Algeria,  280. 
All-German  League,  61. 
Allize,  M.,   193- 
Alsace-Lorraine,  2,  7,  17,  25,  53, 

91-3,  3"- 

Alva,  45,  316. 

American  Civil  War,  3 16, 320, 399. 

Amiral  Ganteaume,  352. 

Andenne,   357,  365- 

Andrejanoff,  von,   69. 

Angeberg,  Count  d',  Le  Congrh 
de  Fienne  et  les  Traites  de 
1815,  20,  21. 

Antwerp,  247,  371. 

Arabia,  301. 

Armies,  numbers  in,  383. 

Army  and  Navy  Register,  107. 

Arras,  347. 

Asquith,  H.  H.,  216,  255,  258. 

Aslurias,  hospital  ship,  348,  355. 

Athens,  199. 

Atlantic,  Emperor  of,  133. 

Atrocity,  systematic  and  orga- 
nized, 342-79. 

Attila,  44,  45,  330,  343. 

Augustenburg,  93. 

Australia,  90,  137,  356. 

Austria,  6,  14-16,  20,  21,  25,  82, 
93,  102,  134,  143-58,  162,  179, 
181,  187,  190-228,  230,  231, 
238,  247,  282,  289,  298-309, 
312,  400. 

Ayme,  M.,  43. 


Bagdad  Railway,  the,  129,  130, 
181,  301. 

Balkan  Question,  the,  291-313. 

Barnardiston,  Colonel,  270-2. 

Barnum,  Phineas  T.,  54. 

Baron,  377. 

Battery  L,   394. 

Battles,  numbers  of  combatants 
in,  383- 

Bavaria,  193. 

Bayonet,  the,  388,  389. 

Bazaine,  Marshal,  124. 

Bedier,  Professor,  Les  Crimes 
Allemands  d'apres  des  te- 
molgnages  allemands,  355. 

Beethoven,  69. 

Belgium,  20,  21,  71,  73,  78,  82, 
91,  109,  no,  134,  156,  159, 
179,  197,  230,  236,  238-40,  241, 
244-76,  301,  310,  311,  312,  325- 

26,  327,  333.  358- 
Belgium's  neutrality,  244-77,  327. 
Belgrade,  149,  154,  190,  196,  198, 

2'22,  303,  307. 
Belliaud,  General,  331. 
Below,  Herr  von,  261,  263. 
Berchtold,  Count  von,  210. 
Berlin,    15,    51,   87,   91,   96,    100, 

127,    142,    I4i,    183,    190,    192, 

196,    200,     207,     213,     221,     225, 

232-4,  29s,  3';8,  391. 

Bernhardi,  General  von,  i,  8,  22, 
23.  71,  77,  85,  97,  108,  125,  172. 

Bernhardi,  Germany  and  the 
Next  War,  1,  72,  82,  84,  89, 
94,  96,  108,  no,  111,  170. 

Bethmann-Hollweg,  Dr.  von,  41, 
48,  74,  82,  132,  158,  179,  183, 
194,  197,  210,  211,  213,  215, 
219-21,  229,  238,  251,  252, 
257-63,  264-70. 

Bieberstein,  Baron  Marschall 
von,   346,  350,  352. 

Bielefeld,  43.  - 


415 


4i6 


INDEX 


Bismarck,  Prince  von,  8,  lo,  15- 
17,  19,  21,  24,  25,  27,  29,  36-41, 
46,  47,   56,   58,   87-88,   91,   93, 

98,  109,  120,  121,  126-9,  168, 
179,  217,  273,  280,  295,  308, 
358,  366,   367- 

Bismarck,    Prince    von.    Reflec- 
tions and  Reminiscences,  no. 
Bloch,  M.,  393,  399. 
Blucher,  322. 

Bluntschli,  Professor,  345. 
Bode,  Dr.,  78. 
ifeoehn,   General   von,    360,   372, 

374- 

Bolivia,  94,  106,  115. 

Bosnia,  91,  143,  151,  iS3.  181, 
189,  191,  294,  296,  299,  304. 

Botha,  General,  14. 

Bourdon,  M.,  T/ie  German  Enig- 
ma, 235. 

Brazil,  94,  106,  114,  115. 

Bremen,  45. 

Bright,  John,  256. 

British  Colonies,  how  acquired, 
161-5. 

Buchanan,  Sir  George,  198. 

Bucharest,  199. 

Bulgaria,  91,  102,  134,  146,  294- 

6,  303,  305- 
Billow,  Prince  von,  2,  7,  8,  25-7, 
48,    128,    131,    147.    155,    169, 
170,    176,    182,    186,    285,    330, 

340.  364- 

Biilow,  Imperial  Germany,  7,  8, 
23,  24,  27,  28,  72,  88,  112,  129, 
182,  183. 

Bunsen,  Sir  Maurice  de,  204. 

Busse,  Dr.  A.,  in  North  Amer- 
ican Review,  118. 

Bynkershoek,  von,  318. 

Caillaux,  M.,  135. 

Cairo,  75,  287. 

Calais,   186. 

Calmette,  M.,  135. 

Calwer,  Richard,  in  Sozialistiche 

Monatsheft,   113. 
Cambon,  Jules,    193,  220,  225-7, 

231,  232,  238,  253. 


Campbell    -    Bannerman,       Sir 

Henry,   175,   176. 
Cameroons,  161,  407. 
Canada,  120,  1J7,  138,  163,  311, 

356.  ^ 
Caprivi,  Count,  15,  48,  129. 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  58,  145. 
Chaka,  343. 
Charlemagne,  3,  29. 
Charleroi,  357. 

Charles,  King  of  Roumania,  294. 
Charles  I,  37. 
Charles  II,  163. 
Charles  V,  108, 
Cherbuliez,  M.,  37. 
China,  45,  80,  114,  286,  321. 
Chinese  War  (1900),  334. 
Chinot,  Abbe,  369. 
Chirol,  Sir  Valentine,  38. 
Christiania,  186. 
Churchill,  Winston  S.,  185. 
Civilization  of  Warfare,  314-41. 
Clarendon,  Lord,  254. 
Clausewitz,   Karl   von,   61,   346, 

358. 
Clive,  163. 
Coblenz,   53. 
Colbert,  J.  B.,  41. 
Cologne,  343. 
Congo,  the,  186. 
Conrad,  Georg,  69. 
Constantinople,    208,    251,    282, 

286,  287,  289,  295. 
Cramb,  Professor,  18. 
Crackanthorpe,  Mr.,  198. 
Croatia,  151,  153,  189,  304. 
Croismare,  360. 
Cyprus,  407. 

Daily  Chronicle,  131. 

Daily  Telegraph,  14,  107. 

Damascus,   130. 

Danish  War   (1864),  332,  339. 

Dar-es-Salaam,  130. 

Davis,     Richard     Harding,     in 

Scribner's  Magazine,  369. 
Dawson,  W.  H.,  The  Evolution 

of  Modern  Germany,  113,  335. 
Decadence,  390-2. 


INDEX 


417 


Delbriick,  Professor,  72,  97-100. 
Denmark,  15,  25,  82,  91,  93,  119, 

i66,  171,  242,  245. 
Derby,  Lord,  254. 
Dernburg;,  Herr,  71-3, 77, 102, 1 69. 
Dewey,  Admiral,  120. 
Diedrichs,  Admiral,  120. 
Dillon,  Dr.,  146,  193. 
Dinant,  74,  159,  325,  357,  361-2, 

368,  372. 
Disfurth,  Major-General,  80. 
Dix,  Herr,  Deutschland  auf  den 

tlochstrassen    des     IVeltwirt- 

scliafte'verkehrs,  119. 
Djavid  Bey,  289. 
Drink  Question,  the,  392. 
Ducarne,  General,  270-2. 
Dreikaiserbund,  The,  127. 
Duplix,  163-4. 

Eberlein,  First  Lieutenant,  373. 
Edgcumbe,  Lieutenant,  376. 
Edward  VII,  178. 
Egypt,    132,   n8,   280,   281,  287, 

301,  407. 
Ehrlich,  78. 
Eisenhart,  Dr.,  124. 
Eitel,  Fritz,  Prince,  372. 
Eliot,  Dr.,  71. 
Elst,  Baron  van  der,  261. 
Ems,  25. 

Enver  Pasha,  284,  287,  289. 
Eyschen,  M.,  264. 
"  Fabricius,"  see  Fortnightly  Re- 

vieiv. 

Falaba,  354. 

Ferdinand,  Archduke,  see  Franz 
Ferdinand. 

Fermo,  354. 

Fichte,  J.  G.,  63. 

Fischer,  Kuno,  Hegel,  81. 

Flanders,  328. 

Fletcher,  C.  R.  L.,  77. 

Forbeiider,  General  von,  373. 

Forgach,  Count,  154,  155. 

Fortnightly  Revieiv,  115,  120. 

Fox,  Frank,  in  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury, 370,  371. 


France,  7,  13,  16,  20,  21,  27,  31, 
33,  34,  51,  61,  74,  82,  85,  90, 
92,  93,  99,  loi,  102,  106,  109, 
no,  124,  126-9,  132,  134-6, 
141,   142,    145,    149,    156,    158, 

159,  162-4,  170,  179,  i79-3> 
186,  187,  192,  198-200,  202, 
214-16,  218-20,  223-8,  231,  232, 
237-242,  246,  247,  252-4,  257- 
68,  270-5,  279,  283,  284,  296, 
326,  328. 

Francis-Joseph,  45,  134,  189. 
Franco-German  War,  320,  333. 
Frankel,  Mrs.,  364. 
Franz  -  Ferdinand,      A  chduke, 
141,    143-144,    148,   149,    155-6, 

160,  190,  192,  229,  306,  307,  308. 
Frederick   (Barbarossa),  4,  29. 
Frederick  the  Great,  16,  21,  36, 

37,  57,  58,  75,  92,  93,  163,  217, 

265,  318,  400. 
Frederick  III,  128. 
Frederick  William  I,  36. 
Frederick   William   IV,    16,    18, 

19,  37- 
French,  Genl.  Sir  John,  405. 
Friedjung,  Dr.,  153,  154,  189. 
Fuchs,  Dr.,  336. 
Fulda,  69. 

Gallenga,  Mr.,  339. 
Geffcken,  Professor,  249,  273. 
Geneva  Convention,  315,  319,  343. 
Genghis  Khan,  5. 
George  III  of  England,  18. 
George,  D.  Lloyd,  182. 
Cierman  culture,  58-64,  94-7. 
German  organization,  59-60. 
German  Societies  in  the  United 

States,  116,  117. 
German  IVar-Book,  68,  69,  328, 

344- 

"  Germania  Triumphans,"  see 
Ruckhlick  auf  die  iveltge- 
schichtlichen  Ereifnisse  drr 
Jahrs  1900-15,  z'on  einern 
Grossdeutschen. 

Germany,  an  absolute  mon- 
archy, 33-55. 


4i8 


INDEX 


Germany,  its  colonial  ambitions, 
97-104. 

Germany,  its  European  expan- 
sion, 87-96. 

Germany,  its  national  character, 
1-32. 

Germany,  its  self-consciousness, 
56. 

Gheluvelt,  397. 

Gibraltar,  162. 

Giesl,  Baron  von,  150. 

Giolitti,  Signor,  156-8,  226. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  242,  245,  247, 
256,  257,  259,  271,  294. 

Gneisenau,  Graf  von,  59. 

Gtieisenau,  403. 

Goeben,  General  von,  333. 

Goethe,  8,  69,  125,  145,  337. 

Goltz,    Field-Marshal    von    der, 

61,  79.  85,  345,  364- 

Goluchowski,  Count,  14. 

Gomery,  349. 

Gordons,  the,  396. 

Goschen,  Sir  Edward,  132,  158, 
201,  210,  219,  224,  227,  228, 
238,  251,  252,  257,  274. 

Great  Britain,  2,  7,  12-14,  31,  33, 
43,  45,  51,  61,  69,  72,  78,  85, 
88,  90,  92,  97,  99-106,  110-13, 
116,  117,  120,  123,  124,  126, 
127,  132,  135,  136-41,  146,  149, 
156,  158-88,  194-206,  210-24, 
229-47,  251-62,  265-72,  275, 
279,   283,   286,   287,   297j   298, 

312. 

Greece,  91,  134,  293,  296,  303, 
305- 

Grey,  Sir  Edward,  144,  145,  158, 
178,  182,  192,  194-208,  211-24, 
229,  231-2,  236-43,  245,  247, 
252-4,  257,  258,  269,  290,  312. 

Griscom,  Mr.,  15. 

Gronau,  Duke  of,  372. 

Gronow,  Captain,  331,  332. 

Grotius,  248,  317. 

Gue-d'Hossus,  359. 

Haeckel,  E.  H.,  78. 

Hague  Conference,  11,  no,  315, 


319,    322,    323,   324,   327,   328,1 

343,    346,    347,    350,    351,    353. 

364,  367,  373- 
Halby,  69. 
Haldane,  Lord,   183. 
Halil  Bey,  289. 
Hamburg,  228. 

Hamburger  Nachrichten,  8c,  120. 
Hamilton,  Sir  Ian,  321. 
Hanonville,  374. 

Harden,  Maximilian,  70,  71,  186, 
Harden,    Maximilian     Monarchs 

and  Men,  47. 
Hardenburg,  Prince  von,  59. 
Hardinge,  Lord,  138. 
Harnack,  A.,  78. 
Hartmann,  79. 

Hauptmann,  G.,  65,  68,  69,  78. 
Havelock,  Bombardier,  394, 
Havre,_348,  352. 
Hawaii,  103. 
Headlam,   Dr.   J.   W.,   England, 

Germany  and  Europe,  in. 
Headlam,  Dr.  J.  W.,  in  Histor- 
ical Re'vievj,  28,  62. 
Heeringen,  Herr  von,  263. 
Hegel,  85. 
Heidelberg,  343. 
Heine,  H.,  69. 
Henry  H  of  England,  5. 
Henry  HI  of  England,  5. 
Henry  V  of  England,  5,  30,  316. 
Henry,  Prince  of  Prussia,  49. 
Heroism,  deeds  of,  394-8. 
Herzegovina,   91,    143,    151,    153, 

181,  294,  296,  304. 
Hill,  Dr.  David  Jayne,  15. 
Hindenburg,  General  von,  337. 
Hogan,  Sergeant,  396. 
Hohenlohe,    Prince    von,    48,    53, 

67. 
Holland,  91,  loo,  101,  113,  162-4, 

214,  242,  245-7,  249,  258,  259, 

301,  310,  351. 
Holzendorff,  Handbook  of  Inter- 

national  Laiv,  250,  346. 
Huy,  357. 

Icaria,  352. 


INDEX 


419 


India,  78,   138,   162-4,  230,  288, 

301,  311- 
International  Law,  317-21. 
Ireland,  140,  142. 
Italy,    7,    27,    51,    133,    145,    149, 

156,    157.    192,    198,    200,    211, 

212,    220,    226,   298,   299,    301, 

320. 

Jagow,  Herr  von,  193,  196,  197, 
200,  224-8,  252,  264,  273,  274. 

Jahrbuch  fur  Deutschlands  See- 
inieressen,  121. 

Japan,  no. 

Java,  165. 

Jeraappes,  363,  364. 

Jerusalem,  132. 

Joffre,  General,  405. 

John,  King  of  England,  316. 

Kane,  Captain,  121. 

Kant,  Immanuel,  57,  63. 

Khalifa,  The,  45. 

Kiao  Chou,   114,  169. 

Kitchener,  Lord,  138. 

Kladderadatsch,  233. 

Klein,  Gaston,  377. 

Klemt,  Under-Officer,  374. 

Kolnische  Zeitung,  330. 

Konigsberg,  44. 

Kordofan,  287. 

Kretzer,  69. 

Kriegsbrauch,  322-8,   345-7,   350, 

367,  373,  376. 
Kruger,  President,  13,  132,  169. 
Kuhlmann,  Baron,  239. 

Lasson,  Professor,  342. 

Law,  A.  Bonar,  56. 

Lawrence,    T.    J.,    International 

Problems  and  Hague  Confer- 
-   ence,  322. 
Leach,  Lieutenant,  396. 
Ledebur,  Major,  378. 
Leipzig,  403. 
Lichnowski,  Prince,  194,  200,  202, 

212-15,  237,  238,  252. 
Liebnitz,  319. 
Liege,  357.  37°. 
Lille,  97. 


Lincoln,  Abraham,  243. 

Lizst,  78. 

Lobengula,  343. 

Lokal-Anzeiger,  199. 

Lotze,  79. 

Louis  XIV,  41,  108,  162. 

Louvain,    74,    78,    97,    160,    325, 

343,  358,  368,  370,  377. 
Low,    Sidney,    in    Quarterly   Re- 

meix;,  62. 
Liider,  Professor,  345. 
Luneville,  373. 
Luther,  M.,  84. 
Luxemburg,  73,  74,  228,  231,  254, 

264,  26s,  327. 

Macchio,  Baron,  198. 

McElray,  Professor  Robt.,  18. 

Machiavelli,  317. 

McKinley,  President,  121. 

Mahan,  Admiral  A.  T.,  The  In- 
terest of  America  in  Interna- 
tional Conditions,  106. 

Mahdi,  The,  45. 

Malines,  160,  325,  357,  368,  371. 

Mallet,  Sir  Louis,  251,  283,  286, 
287. 

Manchuria,  382. 

Manila,  105,  ii6. 

Maria  Theresa,'  16. 

Marching  songs,  402. 

Mariscal,  Senor,  105. 

Marlborough,  Duke  of,  318,  383, 
400. 

Marshall  Islands,  162,  407. 

Maubeuge,  274. 

Maximilian  of  Mexico,  123,  124. 

Maxwell,  Sir  Herbert,  332. 

Mazarin,  Cardinal,  41. 

Mensdorff,  Count  Albert,  150, 
194-195,  238. 

Mercier,  Cardinal,  160,  357. 

Mesopotamia,  130,  147. 

Metternich,  299,  308. 

Mexico,  123,  124. 

Milton,  John,  Paradise  Lost,  74. 

Moltke,  Count  von,  17,  23,  29,  58, 

345- 
Moltke,  General  von,  227,  228. 
Mommsen,  History  of  .Rome,  341. 


420 


INDEX 


Monroe,  Doctrine,  the,  99,   102, 

105-25. 
Monroe,  President,  123. 
Mons,  399. 
Montenegro,  152,  294,  295,  299, 

304- 
Morgan,  Professor  J.  H.,  68,  69, 

327- 
Morier,  Sir  Robert,  273. 
Morocco,  114,  132,  147,  182,  183, 

226,  230,  280. 
Moy,  376. 

Muffling,  General,  332. 
Miigge,  M.  A.,  67. 
Mullah,  The  Mad,  45. 
Mumm,  Baron,  102. 
Munich,  193,  273. 
Munsterburg,  Professor,  107. 

Namur,  357. 

Napoleon  I,  3,  8,  19,  20,  56,  69, 
79,  92,  108,  164,  259,  310,  318, 
383,  384,  400. 

Napoleon  III,  124,  320. 

"  Nauticus,"  see  Jahrbuch  fiir 
Deutschlands  Seeinteressen. 

Navy  League,  61,  172. 

Nation,  The,  176. 

Nelson,  Lord,  394,  403. 

Nemours,  334. 

Neue  Freie  Presse,  190. 

Neucs  Pester  Journal,  190. 

Newfoundland,  162. 

New  Guinea,  90,  99,  161,  165,  407. 

New  York,  11,  12. 

Nenv  York  Times,  71,  354. 

Nicher,  General  von,  366. 

Nicholas,  Archduke,  405. 

Nicholas,  Tsar,  45,  50,  199,  221. 

Nietzsche,  F.,  42,  61-70,  77,  79, 
84,  85,  89,  218,  391. 

Nietzsche,  F.,  The  Joyful  Wis- 
dom, III. 

Nogent-le-Roi,   334. 

Northomb,  M.,  in  Revue  des  deux 
Mondes,  355,  359,  378. 

Nova  Scotia,  162,  163. 

Niirnberg,  403. 

Odessa,  257,  289. 


O'Leary,     Lance-Corporal,     395, 

396. 
Oliphant,  Laurence,  333,  339. 
Oman's  History  of  England,  30. 
Ostwald,  Professor,  366. 
Otto  the  Great,  3. 
Outlook,  New  York,  18. 

Pacifism,    growth    of    in    Great 

Britain,  165-88. 
Panama  Canal,  119,  122. 
Pan-Germanise  he  Blatter,  77. 
Paris,  193,  199,  236. 
Paris,  Declaration  of,  319. 
Peace,    Great    Britain's    endeav- 
ours for,  174-88. 
Persia,  7,  21,  132,  230,  301. 
Petit  Bleu,  he,  268. 
Philip  II,  108,  310. 
Pitt,  William,  258. 
Poland,   2,   19,   91,   92,   109,  222, 

302,  328. 
Portugal,  94,  113,  161-3,  166,  205. 
Potsdam,  214,  219. 
Powell,  Mr.,  in  Nevj  York  Her- 
ald, 371,  372. 
Preussicher  Jahrbuch,  97. 
Princip,  189,  190. 
Prizren,  153. 

Prochaska,  Consul,  153,  189. 
Prempeh,  King,  343. 
Prussia,    4,    6,    16,    18-21,    25-8, 
36-8,  40,  46,  48,  49,   52,   57-9, 
63.  75.  78,  81,  87,  89,  90,  92-5, 
163,    227,    247,    266,    283,   285, 
298,  301,  302,  306,  320. 
Puffendorf,  319. 

Quarterly  Review,  36,  37,  38,  62, 
75,  82,  83. 

Ranke,  L.  von.  History  of  the 
Popes,  250. 

Red  Cross,  324,  337,  348,  350, 
386. 

Rehberg,  Count,  37. 

Reich,  Emil,  Germany's  Mad- 
ness, 109,  115. 

Reichstag,  The,  35-7,  48,  51,  73, 


INDEX 


421 


126,  181,  184,  227,  251,  260-3, 

335- 
Reventlow,   Count,   85,   172,  235, 

342. 
Rheims,    97,    343,   347.   365,   368, 

369. 
Richard  I  of  England,  5,  316. 
Richter,  J.  P.,  54. 
Robert,  M.,  377. 
Roberts,  Lord,  139. 
Rodd,  Sir  Rennell,  208. 
Rome,  156,  208,  212. 
Rontgen,  78. 

Roon,  Count  von,  24,  59,  234. 
Ross,  Captain,  363. 
Rouen,   333. 
Roumania,    91,    134,    146,   294-6, 

299-  ,.   , 

Ruckhlick  auf  die  iveltgescliicht- 
lic/ien  Ereifnlsse  der  Jalirs 
1900-15  'von  einem  Gross- 
dcutsriien,  124. 

Rumbold,  Sir  Horace,  194,  197, 
200. 

Ruskin,  John,  Fors  Clavigera, 
330. 

Russia,  13,  14,  21,  31,  33,  34,  42, 
+5.  5O1  99.  ^oo>  i°^>  '■^2,  123, 
126-8,  133-6,  141.  143.  144. 
146,  148,  149,  153.  156,  158, 
159,  166,  170,  178-82,  187,  192, 
194-204,  208-10,  212-16,  218, 
219,  222-29,  231-234,  237,  238, 
254,  257,  260,  273,  283,  284, 
288,  289,  293,  295,  298-300, 
302,  304-6,  400. 

Russo-Japanese  War,  320,  321. 

Sadowa,  15,  25,  93. 

St.  Petersburg,  198-9,  222. 

St.    Petersburg,    Declaration    of, 

319. 
Samoa,   99,    103,    121,    165,    171, 

407-  .      ,. 

San   Giuliano,   Marquis  di,   156, 

157,  212. 
Sazonoff,  M.,  158,  199,  200,  215, 

223,  236,  290. 
Scarborough,  251,  324,  348. 
Scharnhorst,  G.  J.  D.  von,  59. 


Scharnhorst,  403. 
Schebeko,  Count,  192. 
Schiller,  125. 
Schleswig-Holstein,   2,    15,   91-3, 

311. 
Schmoller,    Herr,    The  Policy   of 

Commerce  and  Force,  115. 
Schoen,  Herr  von,  193. 
Schopenhauer,  A.,  69. 
Sedan,  25. 
Senlis,  74,  325. 
Serajevo,    i,    141,    142,    151,    155, 

192,   197,  292,  307,  308. 
Serbia,  91,  102,  134,  143-57.  189- 

192,   194-9,  203-30,  282,  293-6, 

300,  303-7,  400. 
Shaw,  G.  B.,  244. 
Shaw,  Stanley,  William  of  Ger- 
many, 43. 
Silesia,  2,  16,  19,  91,  109,  163. 
Sheringham,  251. 
Soicsons,  385. 
Soldiers,    characteristics  of  our, 

401-5. 
Sondeburg,  333. 
South  Africa,   14,  132,   137,  138, 

165,  196,  311. 
South    African    War,    320,    321, 

375.  382. 
Soothey,  Robert,  331. 
Spain,  100,  loi,  119,  i6r,  162. 
Spec,  Admiral,  285. 
Stein,  H.  F.  K.,  59. 
Stendhal,  69. 
Stenger,  lleneral,  375. 
Stowell,  Lord,  319. 
Strassburg,  333. 
Suarez,  Francisco,  317. 
Sudermann,  IL,  69,  78. 
Suez  Canal,  289,  297, 
Svvakopmund,  130. 
Swinemunde,  14. 
Switzerland,  91,  244,  259,  310. 
Syria,  301. 
Szaparay,  Count,  149. 

Taft,  President,  ui. 
Tamerlane,  343. 
Tamines,  357,  360,  361. 


422 


INDEX 


Termonde,  74,  325,  357,  371. 

Tewfik  Pasha,  290. 

Thirty  Years'  War,  the,  316-18, 

330. 
Tilly,  Count  von,  45,  318. 
Times,  The,  190,  376. 
Tirpitz,     Admiral     von,     168-9, 

.170.  337- 
Tisza,  Count,  191. 
Togoland,  161. 
Tokomaru,  352. 
Tournai,   357. 
Transport   in   modern   warfare, 

386,  387. 
Treitschke,    H.   von,   22,   28,   61, 

62,   68-70,   73,    77,   78,    81,    8s, 

89,  96-7,   108-9,   125,   128,  137, 

171,  218,  248. 
Triple  Alliance,  The,   127,  156, 

178,  192. 
Truth  about  Germany,  The,  148, 

155,  334- 
Tschirscky,  Herr  von,   193,   194, 

204,  223. 
Turkey,   22,    91,    102,    133,    134, 

278-90,    292-7,    299,    301,    302, 

304,  305. 

United  States,  2,  10,  12,  15,  51, 
57.  69,  85,  94,  99,  I02,  105-24, 
148,  163,  167,  170,  171,  251, 
257,  356. 

Vattel,  318. 

Vanilla,  354. 

Venezuela,  99,  106,  114,  i'^2. 

Vickers,  K.  H.,  in  Oman's  His- 
tory of  England,  30. 

Vienna,  20,  149,  154,  190-8,  201, 
221-3,  238. 

Vilvorde,  350. 

Vise,  74,  325. 

Wagner,  R.,  69. 
Waldersee,  Count,  378. 
Wall  Street  Journal,   The,  70. 
Wallenstein,  318. 
Waltershausen,  Professor,  Deut- 
schland  und  die  Handelspoli- 


tik    der    Vereini^ten    Staaten 

i>on  Amerika,  119. 
War,   the   immediate  causes  of, 

119-228. 
Warsaw,  244. 
Waterloo,  250. 
Wavre,  366. 
Wellington,   Duke  of,  250,  332, 

342,  384,  399- 
Wells,  H.  G.,  383. 
Welton,  Corporal  C,  338. 
Westminster  Gazette,  403. 
Whitby,  251,  324,  348. 
Whitman,  Sidney,  67,  338. 
Whitney,  W.  C,  105. 
Wilbrandt,  Adolph,  340. 
Will  to  Power,  56,  65,  66,  137. 
William    I,    German    Emperor, 

16,    19,   25,   29,   53,    128. 

William  II,  German  Emperor, 
3,  13-19,  33-54,  56,  60,  61,  67, 
69,  70,  80,  81,  85,  87,  88,  91, 
93,  96,  97,  99,  loi,  102,  108-9, 
114,  126,  128,  130,  132,  133^ 
147,  168,  170-2,  175-6,  181,  183, 
184,  193,  197,  200-4,  213,  215, 
219-21,  224,  228,  250,  259,  310, 
317,  342,  367,  391. 

William  III  of  England,  161, 
162,  318. 

Wilson,  General  James  H.,  334. 

Wilson,  Private,  394. 

Wintzer,  Dr.  W.,  Germany  and 
the  Future  of  Tropical  Amer- 
ica, 121,  122. 

Witte,  Emil,  115,  ir6. 

Wolfe,  General,  163. 

Wolff,  Herr  K.  P.,  77. 

Wolff,  Professor,  Das  dents che 
Reich  und  das  Weltmarket, 
112. 

Wolff's  Bureau,  207. 

Wurtemburg,  Duke  of,  358,  374. 

Yarmouth,  251,  348. 

Yorck  von  Wartenburg,  Count, 

79,  82. 
Ypres,  347,  357,  368,  394,  397. 

Zouche,  319. 


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